Has anyone ever made cotechino?

Would anyone like to get together and make some?

Cotechino is a fresh, spiced sausage (although some do cure it for several days) that is served boiled and sliced alongside lentils and polenta or mashed potatoes. It is traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day.

Wavery Root, in The Food of Italy, describes another preparation which sounds something like the Italian version of Tur-duck-en, but still tempting:

Cotechino in Galera (in prison)

“For this, a cotechino weighing about a pound is boiled until it is half cooked, wrapped in a slice of raw ham which is itself then wrapped in a very thin slice of beef, the two being held in place by thread wound around the whole. A small onion, finely chopped, is now cooked in an earthenware dish in plenty of oil. The wrapped cotechino goes into this and is covered with consommé and dry Lambrusco wine in equal quantities. The cooking is finished in the earthenware dish, with the addition of more consommé if necessary. The cotechino is served sliced in the cooking dish, bathing in the dense gravy which results.”

The name cotechino is derived from the Italian cortica, or pig’s skin, which is an ingredient in the stuffing. (Another use for skin! Hooray!)

Zampone, or stuffed trotters, is the mother of cotechino. The difference being cotechino is simply stuffed in casing. (I think I had a rather nice Zampone three(?) years back at the Whole Hog Dinner at Oliveto’s.)

I found a few sources for recipes if anyone is interested:

http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/2008/12/cotechino-that-which-started-my.html

The River Cottage Meat Book

Bruce Aidell’s Complete Sausage Book

Home Sausage Making

I have a copy of Cooking by Hand on order, I’m not sure if a recipe also appears there?