What New Year's Eve food tradition in Italy uses lentils as a symbol of prosperity?

Eating lentils is the Italian New Year's Eve food tradition associated with prosperity.

In Italy, lentils are commonly served around New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, often alongside cotechino or zampone, two traditional pork products. Their round, coin-like shape is thought to resemble money, so eating them symbolizes hopes for financial abundance in the coming year.

The custom is especially associated with northern Italian cuisine, although lentils and related dishes are eaten throughout the country. Cotechino is a seasoned pork sausage, while zampone is a stuffed pig's trotter. The combination is a familiar holiday meal, but households vary in their recipes and timing.

Lentils are also important in many other cultures because they are nutritious, inexpensive, and store well. Their prosperity symbolism is not universal, however: in Italy it comes from their visual resemblance to coins rather than from a particular New Year's religious requirement.