If you want seduce luck on the last day of the year as done Italy take note: lentils, oil, garlic, onion, celery, hot pepper, thyme and ‘cotechino’It is a kind of delicious and tender sausage, the basic ingredients. replace 12 grapes Italian ‘Capodanno’ after the New Year’s Eve dinner. “With this recipe, we ask for money and good luck for next year,” explains Luciano Monosilio, the undisputed king of carbonara sauce, who has elevated himself to the Michelin Olympus among the world’s top chefs.
A well-known professional cook, Monosilio was preparing his own recipes as a child. In the kitchens of Villa’s Follie restaurant, “My mother was working at school and when she got home she was astonished to see how she made me pasta with tomatoes, pizza, or meat with rice,” he recalls nostalgically. The Agrippina Gran Meliá hotel is the luxury of an oasis in the middle of noisy Rome, in the land where Nero’s mother loved, conspired and ended his days on the same hill at the behest of his son, one step away from the Vatican and on the same hill, Giancolo’s, where the eccentric Roman emperor conceived his final and definitive frenzy. : The burning of the Eternal City in 64.
Already then, the immeasurably superstitious and fearful of the gods living in Agrippa’s Pantheon, the Romans, they ate those lentils to avoid bad luck and ask for wealth next year. A handful of lentils, seen as a symbol of fertility, eventually became a talisman. So in Ancient Rome they began to distribute a small leather purse containing a bunch of lentils (known as a “scarsella”) in the hopes that they would turn into gold coins and give the recipient prosperity and wealth all year long.
It began to be distributed in a bag, served cooked, and in the Middle Ages it began to accompany ‘cotechino’ or ‘zampone’, two delicious Italian sausages resembling sausages and sausages. It was traditionally served for lunch on the last day of the year, but over time it has become the star dish of New Year’s Eve and is eaten from one year to the next. provide luck and prosperity throughout the next year.
How to prepare lucky lentils?
put the lentils leave for at least 40 minutes To make sure they are soft and do not lose their crust after cooking.
to fry with oil, garlic, onion, celery and a little hot pepper.
Cook the lentils until they are completely covered with water. in that sauce for 35 minutes with a handful of salt and thyme. Let them cook on low heat.
‘Cotechino’ should be drilled and cooked separately.however, it can also be cooked in casseroles with lentils to add more flavor to the dish.
When the lentils are ready, remove the ‘cotechino’ and slice it serving a handful of lentils with three or four servings of sausage.
“The more lentils eaten, the luckier‘ assures the Roman chef, who offers to pair the dish with frizzante wine, champagne or cava.