What is the traditional New Year's Eve meal of lentils associated with good fortune in Italy called?

Cotechino con lenticchie is the traditional Italian New Year's Eve dish of sausage served with lentils.

Cotechino is a cooked pork sausage from northern Italy, especially associated with Modena and the surrounding Emilia-Romagna culinary tradition. It is commonly served with lentils on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Lentils resemble small coins, so eating them is linked symbolically with wealth and prosperity in the coming year.

The dish's two main components carry different associations. Pork has long been connected with abundance because a pig's meat and fat provide substantial food, while lentils symbolize money through their shape and quantity. Regional preparations and serving customs vary, and some households use zampone, a stuffed pig's trotter, instead of cotechino.

Cotechino con lenticchie is not the same as panettone, the sweet Milanese bread widely eaten during the Christmas season. Nor is every Italian family required to serve it; it is a well-known national New Year's custom with especially strong roots in northern and central Italy.