Cotechino Modena or Cotechino di Modena (spelled cotecchino or coteghino in some major dialects, but not in Italian) is a fresh
sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...
made from
pork
Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved ...
,
fatback
Fatback (also known as streak of lean or streak of fat) is a cut of meat from a domestic pig. It consists of the layer of adipose tissue (subcutaneous fat) under the skin of the back, with or without the skin (pork rind). Fatback is "hard fa ...
, and
pork rind
Pork rind is the culinary term for the skin of a pig. It can be used in many different ways.
It can be rendered, fried in fat, baked, or roasted to produce a kind of pork cracklings (US) or scratchings (UK); these are served in small piece ...
, and comes from
Modena
Modena (, , ; egl, label= Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and '' comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.
A town, and seat o ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, where it has ''
PGI'' status. Zampone Modena is closely related and also has ''PGI'' status.
Cotechino dates back to around 1511 to
Gavello in
Mirandola, where, whilst besieged, the people had to find a way to preserve meat and use the less tender cuts, so they made cotechino.
developed its own specialty enveloped in a hollowed out
pig's trotter, named the Zampone.
By the 18th century it had become more popular than the yellowish sausage that had been around at the time, and in the 19th century entered
mass production
Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and ba ...
in and around the area.
Cotechino is often served with
lentils
The lentil (''Lens culinaris'' or ''Lens esculenta'') is an edible legume. It is an annual plant known for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each. As a food crop, the largest produ ...
alongside mashed potatoes or
polenta
Polenta (, ) is a dish of boiled cornmeal that was historically made from other grains. The dish comes from Italy. It may be served as a hot porridge, or it may be allowed to cool and solidify into a loaf that can be baked, fried, or grilled.
...
, especially around
New Year
New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system ...
.
Image:Cotechino-Servito-Polenta-Lenticchie.jpg, Cotechino Modena (at top) Served with polenta and lentils
Image:Cotechino-Intero.jpg, Cooked Cotechino Modena
See also
*
List of Italian dishes
This is a list of Italian dishes and foods. Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BC. Italian cuisine has its origins in Etruscan, ancient Greek, and anci ...
References
External links
{{commons
Cibo360 - Cotechino & Zampone(Italian)
Italian products with protected designation of origin
Italian sausages
Pig's trotters