I've just finished stuufing a batch of cotechino and I was wondering
whether any RFCers have any favorite uses for it. I've used it in
bollito misto and cooked with lentils or canellini in the past. Does
anyone have any other suggestions?

D.M.

"Don Martinich" > ha scritto nel messaggio
...

> I've just finished stuufing a batch of cotechino and I was wondering
> whether any RFCers have any favorite uses for it. I've used it in
> bollito misto and cooked with lentils or canellini in the past. Does
> anyone have any other suggestions?

Well, just a couple. My granny, mother side, used to cook "cotechino in
crosta" which is a cotechino wrapped in bread dough and baked. This way the
fat of the cotechino all remain trapped inside, very very arthery clogging
recipe. One could make that lighter by boiling the cotechino half-way and
then wrapping and baking it.
A common way of serving cotechino is with sides like potato puree or boiled
potatoes. Lentils also are very common, expecially during the christmas
days. Cotechino in bollito misto is the main way to eat it hereabouts, maybe
with lettuce salads and "mostarda", which is a kind of pickled fruits,
pickled in a mustard based sweet sauce.

Don Martinich > wrote:

> I've just finished stuufing a batch of cotechino and I was wondering
> whether any RFCers have any favorite uses for it. I've used it in
> bollito misto and cooked with lentils or canellini in the past. Does
> anyone have any other suggestions?

Just cooking cotechino (commercial in my case) with lentils is my
favourite way, but I once made a kind of a roulade (involtino,
paupiette, zraza, etc.) using a cotechino, which is traditional and goes
under such names as "cotechino in galera" (in prison), "cotechino in
camicia" (in nightshirt), or "cotechino in fagotto" (in a bassoon).
People who ate it with me liked it well enough, but I did not, but then
I tend to dislike any rouladen made with a meat "casing". This general
dish is typical of Emilia and now also of Romagna. Either veal or beef
is typically used for the "secondary casing". The additions, usually
including a typical battuto of onions, carrots and celery, vary a bit,
some including pancetta, some prosciutto, some porcini mushrooms. I no
longer have the exact recipe I used (I think it included mushrooms), but
here is another one, from the latest Accademia Italiana della Cucina
recipe compilation. I can post some other similar ones.

Victor

Cotechino in galera
Cotechino "in prison"
For 6 persons

Cotechino is a fresh pork sausage that contains pork rind or cooked pork
skin (_cotico_), which imparts an unctuous texture. It is often boiled
and served with lentils. Here the cotechino is "in prison" because it
is inside the rolled-up beef. This dish is typical of Modena. For the
wine use Sangiovese di Romagna.

1 precooked cotechino, weighing about 1 lb
1 lb beef in a single slice, pounded thin
4 oz. pancetta, sliced
3 cups red wine
2/3 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onions
2/3 cup chopped celery
2 bay leaves
1/4 lb (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
4 cups beef broth
1/2 lb peeled plum tomatoes
Pinch salt

Remove the meat from the casing of the cotechino.

Spread this meat over the slice of beef and roll up the beef; cover it
with the slices of pancetta, then tie closed with kitchen twine.

Mix the red wine with the carrots, onions, celery, and bay leaves; add
the meat and marinate for 5 to 6 hours in the refrigerator.

Heat the butter in a pan and add the meat, browning it.

Pour in the broth, then the marinade.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer. After about 1 hour,
add the tomatoes and salt.

Simmer for about 3 hours. Remove the meat from the sauce and pass the
sauce through an sieve. Serve the meat sliced with the sauce.