How about surprising your guests with homemade cotechino sausage? Let's take a look at the ingredients you need, the procedure and, above all, the right mix of spices to give the meat a strong but balanced flavour.

There are many different options when it comes to ingredients: some use only pork rind, others add beef, and others use lard and bacon.

We suggest using this combination for the mixture:

55% lean pork

25% lard and/or pancetta

20% pork rind (which should preferably be boiled before mincing and adding to the mixture, to obtain a more compact and homogeneous consistency).

To mix and flavour your homemade cotechino, you will need: salt, a generous mix of spices, which we will come back to in a few lines, red wine (or mulled wine), at least half a glass per kg of meat, a little hot water, bone broth (optional, but it gives a stronger flavour to the whole dish).

The meat should be finely minced and mixed with salt and spices. The water and wine should be added last, when the ingredients are well blended and the mixture has a fairly smooth consistency.

Once the mixture of meat, wine and spices is ready, it should be stuffed into a food-grade casing and left to rest for at least 24 hours before cooking. Make sure to seal it well.

Which spices to use to make homemade cotechino

To give your cotechino aroma and flavour, you will need to use a generous but balanced mix of spices. The most commonly used are garlic (powder), black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, cloves, juniper berries and bay leaves (the latter to be added to the cooking water). There are also variations of the recipe with “alternative” spices that are not commonly found in traditional recipes, such as mace, coriander, or fennel seeds.

One note before concluding: while all the other spices can be added directly to the mixture, we recommend macerating the juniper berries and cloves in the wine you will use for the preparation.

Are you wondering where to buy the casing? It's easier than you might think: it is available in most butcher's shops, and if you don't have one in your area, you can easily buy it from various online shops.