• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

Michelle's blog

Food allergy and food intolerance, freefrom foods, electrosensitivity, this and that...

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • FreeFrom Food Awards
  • Foods Matter
  • Walks & Gardens
  • Salon Music
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • FreeFrom Food Awards
  • Foods Matter
  • Walks & Gardens
  • Salon Music

Happy lentilly New Year

31/12/2012 //  by Michelle Berridale Johnson//  Leave a Comment

Alex has just alerted me to the fact that, because they look like little gold coins, lentils are a traditional dish on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in Italy as they are thought to bring wealth in the year to come!  I know it is a little late, but I thought maybe we could jump on the gold coin bandwagon, and I could point you in the direction of some freefrom lentil recipes for tomorrow. (There are lentils in there in the picture – they are just inside the peppers!)

Lentil-stuffed peppers

But first, I though I should just check with my Italian oracle,  Anna (del Conte)…. She says, in her ‘dictionary’  Gastronomy of Italy:

A very popular pulse enjoyed in all regions of Italy. The kind eaten are the continental lentils which keep their shape when cooked. Unlike other pulses they do not need soaking , unless they have been stored for too long. Lentils grow in many regions of Italy although the best kind come from Abruzzi and Umbria. The tiny, dark brown lentils from Castelluccio, a town east of Spoleto, are said to the best in Italy. In many regions lentils are eaten at midnight on New Year’s Eve, or on New Year’s Day, because there is a superstition that they bring wealth in the year to come.

The recipe given here, she says, is for lenticchie in umido, which is the way we always cooked them in my family. We served them with Zampone, and what a meal that was.

(Zampone.
This insaccato was created out of necessity in Modena in 1511. The town was under siege by the army of Pope Julius II and the townspeople found themselves without casings for their sausage meat. The answer to the problem was to use a pig’s trotter and to put sausage meat into that.

Zamponi are made with the rind, meat from the shoulder, head, neck and calf of the pig, and fat, all very finely minced together and flavoured with  nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt and pepper. The mixture is pushed into the boned trotter. Before cooking zampone is soaked for several hours; it is them wrapped in cloth to prevent the skin from splitting and cooked at a bare simmer for at least four hours. The result will be a tender sausage with a delicate taste and a light, jelly-like gluey texture.)

Anna’s recipe for lenticchie in umido, which I am sure she will not mind me quoting, goes like this:

Serves 4
15ml olive oil
50g pancetta (bacon)
1 small onion, very finely chopped
4–5 sage leaves or 1/4 tsp dried sage
350g brown lentils
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the oil and pancetta in a heavy saucepan and heat for 2 minutes. Add the onion and the sage and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the lentils and as soon as  they are well coated with fat, pour over about 1 litre of  boiling water. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour or until the lentils are soft but still whole and nearly all the liquid has been absorbed.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

Or, for something more English……

FreeFrom Carrot and lentil soup (although this uses red lentils so I am not sure whether it counts for the good luck charm….)

FreeFrom Puy lentils with okra and coriander (this uses Puy lentils which Anna tells me are the nearest to the lentils from Castelluccuio mentioned above – and, as you will see, I am rather addicted to them….)

FreeFrom Pigeons with Puy lentils and orange

FreeFrom Beef Stuffed and Lentil Stuffed Peppers with Many Cabbages!

FreeFrom Marinated lamb with chillis, carrot and Puy lentils

FreeFrom Sausage and Puy Lentil Casserole

FreeFrom Gammon with green lentils and cabbage

 

May I wish everyone a happy – and prosperous – New Year!

Category: Dairy-free, Food, FreeFrom Food, Gluten-free, RecipesTag: Anna del Conte, Eating lentils on New Year's Eve for luck, green lentils, lenticchie, lenticchie in umido, lentils, lentils for wealth, lentils from Castelluccio, New Year's Eve, Puy lentils, red lentils, Zampone

Previous Post: « Sue’s Socca……
Next Post: It’s all ‘go’ at Skinsmatter…. »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Colliding with a new reality – the hazards of low vision
  • Call for adult allergy sufferers
  • The vegan/allergy labelling issue
  • A gluten free Christmas just could be delicious – not a penance!
  • A food fad won’t kill you – an allergy will

Search this blog

ARCHIVES

Blogroll

  • Allergy Insight
  • Better brains, naturally
  • For Ever FreeFrom
  • Free From (gluten)
  • Freefrom Food Awards
  • Gluten-free Mrs D
  • Natural Health Worldwide
  • Pure Health Clinic
  • Skins Matter
  • The Helminthic Therapy Wiki
  • Truly Gluten Free
  • What Allergy?

TOPICS

A food fad won’t kill you – an allergy will

There has been a predictable outcry in the allergy world this week’s in response to Rachel Johnson’s piece in Thursday’s Evening Standard on ‘dietary requirements’ and food fads. Being charitable, I am assuming that she has never suffered from or lived with someone with a food allergy. However, I do have some sympathy with her …

Bioplastics – a solution or part of the problem?

Everyday Plastic is a social enterprise group using accessible learning and publicity campaigns to reduce the amount of plastics used daily in our society. It was founded by its current director Daniel Webb who, having moved to Margate in Kent in 2016, was horrified to discover that there were no plastic recycling options on offer.  …

FreeFrom Christmas Awards – the Winners

Since they were launched two years ago the FreeFrom Christmas Awards have been a great success. And how lucky are ‘freefrom-ers’ these days!  From Advent calendars to gifts, party food to Christmas dinner, there is no longer any need for them to miss out. Indeed, the whole family can happily eat freefrom and never know …

Do not extradite Julian Assange to the US

Julian Assange is being sought by the current US administration for publishing US government documents which exposed war crimes and human rights abuses. The politically motivated charges represent an unprecedented attack on press freedom and the public’s right to know – seeking to criminalise basic journalistic activity. Assange is facing a 175-year sentence for publishing …

What to believe – applying critical thought

For the average citizen evaluating the claims made for cure all – or even improve all – health products and procedures has always been difficult. Not only is it an area in which we have minimal expertise but most of us have a vested interest in finding a miracle intervention that will solve our health …

Could wireless monitoring devices be killing racehorses?

Regular readers may remember that back in August last year I alerted you to a posting on Arthur Firstenberg’s Cellphone Task Force site about phone masts and bird flu. Could there be a connection between the fact that the two wildlife sites in Holland and Northern France which had suffered catastrophic bird flu deaths were …

Site Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Michelle's Blog · Michelle Berridale Johnson · Site design by DigitalJen·