"My mother's lentil soup is delicious," said my friend. I was skeptical.
"But why lentils?"
"Lentils symbolise prosperity. The more you eat the richer you'll be in the new year."
Lentils and a sausage (cotechino) or stuffed pig's trotter (stinco di maiale) was the traditional dish for New Year's Eve.
So what could I do but try it? I boiled the lentils and the sausage as indicated on various packet instructions. It all looked, well, rather uninviting. It was. The lentils were soggy and had a distinct earthiness to them. The sausage had an unappealing puddle of fat leaking from it. I ate a few mouthfuls and gave up. Nobody could be that desperate for wealth.
I asked around a bit more. It seemed I had used the wrong type of lentils. Now those grown on the plains around Norcia and Castelluccio were the ones to use. The cotechino could be enhanced with a little mostarda, which isn't mustard, but candied fruit in a spicy syrup. It looked like just not-the-thing to have with meat.
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| Traditional: cotechino, lentils and mostarda |
But I gave it another try. The lentils were definitely tasty but the cotechino? Let's say greasy sausage and sweet spicy syrup are not a marriage made in heaven - though a lot of Italians would swear otherwise.
It turns out the whole traditional New Year's Eve menu is geared towards prosperity in the new year. The lentils because they are round, flat and vaguely golden in hue represent coins. The fatty meat symbolizes abundance. The meal is then rounded off with grapes to ensure frugality with the new found wealth.
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| lentil lasagna |
However, as I peruse my food magazines, looking for a new take on old lentils, I realise that I may not be the only person who finds the New's Year Eve menu a tad dull. My eye is caught by the picture of little nests of filo pastry with dainty spoonfuls of lentils in them and cubes of cotecchino atop. It looks nice - maybe without the sausage? But would such a small quantity of lentils bring me the desired prosperity?
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