What is the traditional New Year's Eve feast in Italy especially associated with lentils meant to symbolize?

In Italy, New Year's Eve lentils are traditionally associated with wealth and prosperity.

Lentils are commonly served around the New Year, often alongside cotechino or another pork sausage. Their small, round shape is compared with coins, so eating them symbolizes hopes for financial abundance in the coming year. Pork is also connected with plenty in the tradition because it represents richness and forward movement.

The custom is especially associated with the cenone, the large New Year's Eve dinner. Families and restaurants may serve the dish after midnight or as part of the meal leading into January 1. Recipes vary by region, so there is no single national preparation.

The lentils do not symbolize a fixed number of months or days. Their meaning comes from the visual resemblance to coins and from a wider European pattern of using round foods as prosperity symbols. The practice is cultural rather than a claim that lentils cause wealth.