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To cook a cotechino: If you have the industrial kind follow the directions on the
package, which usually call for it to be boiled in its pouch for a half
hour or so. If you have the raw variety, such as the one from A.G.Ferrari, prick it all over, then put it in
a pot of cold water (a fish boiler is perfect here) and bring the pot to a
slow simmer.
Cook
over a low flame for 2-3 hours; during this time the cotechino will give
off quite a bit of fat, and shrink considerably. Serve the cotechino, cut
into half-inch slices and serve it at once -- they're not so good cold,
nor do they take well to reheating.
To make the soup, which is from the Abruzzi region, you'll need the
ingredients listed above. Soak the lentils overnight. The next day drain
them, transfer them to a pot, and cover with lightly salted cold water.
Bring the pot to a simmer, add the remaining ingredients except the
cotechino, and cover. Simmer gently for about 2 hours.
While the lentils are heating in their water put the pricked cotechino in
a second pot with cold water sufficient for it to float (assuming you're
starting with a raw cotechino). Bring the pot to a slow boil and cook it
for about 2 1/2 hours. Follow the directions on the box for the partially
cooked version (usually cook for about 30 minutes). Serve the soup hot, with half-inch slices of cotechino.
The Cotechino-lentil combination is one of the most classic in Italian cooking.
A cotechino is a rather gelatinous pork sausage about 3 inches in diameter
and 8 long, and is very much a winter thing, traditionally served with the
lentils that augur good fortune on New Year's Eve. Zampone is made with the
same kind of pork meat fitted in a pork leg, making it very tender. In Italy
cotechini and zamponi are sold both raw and partially cooked, Yndella sells on the Internet
the cooked kind, with overnight shipping.
Cotechino and zampone are the main characters of the feste natalizie
(Christmas Holydays), even if they are used mostly at fine dell'anno (New Year Eve). We are speaking of
zampone and of cotechino Modena, two specialties of which Emilia Romagna is most proud.
First came the cotechino, then the zampone. The idea to put the pork meat
in the pork leg were the inhabitants of Mirandola,
the city of the famous Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
Where to find cotechino and zampone in the USA.
Zampone is on sale at the Salumeria Biellese at 376 8th Avenue at 29th Street in New York City.
Phone # is 212-736-7376, fax :212-736-1036. It is homemade on premises and is outstanding.
Cotechino sausage precooked in foil by Levoni (www.levoni.it) is available at Joe's Italian deli
685-B East 187th Street (corner Cambreleng Ave) (718) 367-7979 in the Little Italy section of the Bronx.
From a posting by Peter Masella on www.gustiamo.com forum
Colfiorito - Photo (c)
cdaro
Lentils from Colfiorito
Colfiorito, where the best lentils come from, is a small town on the border
between Umbria and Marche. Located on a 800mt. plateau on the sea level in
the center of the Colfiorito Natural Park, a beautiful reservation in the
heart of Italy, disseminated with marshes and jewels of religious
architecture. Here, the farmers supervise the family
production of lentils, chickpeas, beans and other local agricultural
products such as potatoes and saffron.
Farmers selling their products out of jute sacks along the roads that
cross the Colfiorito Park are still a common sight.
All the steps of the lentils and chickpeas production, the sawing of the
grains, the picking, only when the plants reach their characteristic
yellow and orange color, the natural desiccation and the cleaning inside
the stables and finally the packaging, are managed painstakingly by the
farmer's family according to a tradition passed down from generations.
The lentils from Colfiorito, small in size and of a beautiful green orange
color are yet not protected by any DOP seal , but they have exceptional tenderness, rich flavor and outstanding quality.
A bit of history
It was during one of the assaults to the Mirandola Castle that one of the most typical product of
the local cuisine was born: the zampone. It was the year 1511, when the troops
from the Pope Giulio II were putting under siege the
walls of Mirandola, the people of the Picos,
who were close to surrender for starvation, had the
idea of using the skin of the pig leg to preserve the meat of the pigs,
that would have otherwise become spoiled in few days.
Grounded and mixed with spices,the flavorful pork
meat made it possible to the inhabitants of Mirandola to resist to the
siege, and to invent the salami that gained more fame and fortune than any
other one.
Modena was
already noted in the Renaissance for its yellow sausages. Toward the end of
the 18th century, however, Zampone and Cotechino began to supplant that type
of sausage. In the popular imagination,
Zampone
and Cotechino di Modena became closely identified with the city's
gastronomic tradition.
The spread of Cotechino and Zampone di Modena to
outlying markets was accelerated when two workshops, Frigeri and Bellentani,
became the first to adopt a semi-industrial manufacturing process. They
acted in response to the transformation of local agriculture from a craft to
an industrial system due to intensive livestock breeding. This process of
modernization contributed substantially to the diffusion of the two
products. As the comments of the Rome food writer Vincenzo Agnoletti and
many others indicate, both products had achieved outstanding success on a
large scale by 1800. The technical skills of the workers in the industry,
which they have traditionally passed down from one generation to the next,
are fundamental to the excellence of the two products. Their distinctive
qualities reflect important human as well as environmental factors.
Zampone
and Cotechino di Modena are cured meat products made from a blend of pork
obtained from striated muscle fibers, pork fat, pigskin and various
seasonings. They must be easy to slice. The interiors of both products are
mottled pinkish-red to red in color. The meat mixture must be close-textured
with a uniform particle size. Zampone di Modena must also be covered by a
natural casing made from the skin of the animal's shank and tied at the top.
The zones in which the two products are made consist of the entire
territories of the provinces of Modena, Ferrara, Ravenna, Rimini, Forlģ,
Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Cremona, Lodi, Pavia, Milan,
Varese, Como, Lecco, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua, Verona and Rovigo.
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