Cotechino and Zampone: Italian New Year's Dinners

In northern Italy, boiled cotechino and zampone salami graces the table at New Year’s

Italian tradition: Cotechino and zampone

Cotechino and zampone are two foods that are indispensable from the northern Italian dinner table on New Year’s Eve and Christmas. They are eaten to welcome in the New Year while making one’s wishes for the year to come. Cotechino and zampone symbolize good fortune and prosperity, and they are often served with lentils, which represent money. What differentiates cotechino and zampone is the part of the pig in which the meat is prepared. Traditionally, cotechino is made from filling the intestines while zampone is the lower leg or ‘trotter’ of the pig with the central bone removed. The meat and rind stuffed into the leg and intestine alike are the same: cheek, shoulder, neck, and head; along with various fragrant spices.

They are made of the same indigents: coarsely ground lean and fatty pork, which is then added to finely chopped pork rinds and seasoned with pepper, nutmeg, and cloves, depending on your taste. Some also add cinnamon and, in some cases, wine. Each pork butcher has their own secret recipe. The first is a bit more substantial in terms of calories: while cooking, the rind of the trotter releases fat, even though in both cases we’re not talking about light dishes anyway.

Italian deli meats – Cotechino and zampone

They were invented in 1511 when the troops of Pope Julius II laid siege to Mirandola, a town near Modena. Worn out from hunger at the end of the siege, the inhabitants of Mirandola only had pigs left to eat. Rather than leave them for their enemy, who was quickly approaching the city, they decided to slaughter them all and conserve the meat inside the trotters and intestines. It is often said that philosopher Pico Della Mirandola had come up with the idea.

It depends on how much time you have to prepare your holiday meal. You have a choice to buy them fresh or pre-cooked. In the first case, you’ll need to perforate the cotechino and zampone, wrap them in a cloth or tin foil, place them in a pot with cold water, and leave them to boil for a few hours. In the second case, on the other hand, just 20 to 30 minutes in some boiling water is all it takes to cook them to perfection. But while time is an important factor, the palate is even more so. So, if just once a year you want to eat this dish as one should, we recommend buying them fresh from your butcher. The taste will make up for the hours spent cooking them.