Nasone and Cotechino Tasting

I'm a week late for the traditional Italian new years sausage, cotechino, but no big deal. Had some friends over for our 8th annual cotechino party and of course had to serve the Nasone too!

	I wrapped the Nasone in foil and put it in a pot of cold water, and brought it up to a simmer slowly. I simmered it for about 2 hours, the let it sit in the pot of water for about 20 minutes. Unwrapped and here you have it.
	Here is the nasone after 2 hours of simmering, and the cotechino after 1.5 hours of simmering. I did not wrap the cotechino this year, and had no problems with it bursting!
	Nasone cut. During the cooking the skin turned to very soft and very sticky gelatin. It "glued" itself to teh stuffing inside and to itself as the wrapper. Looks great.
	Slice of nasone Note the thickness of the snout and the beautiful filling of meat, fat and skin. Yum. Of course the snout wrapper is eaten too.
	Here are the nasone and cotechino sliced and served on top of lentils and steamed Savoy cabbage. Good luck and money will come to all those who ate it! Belated Happy New Year!

As for the flavor? I'd say it was good. There is no hiding the nasone is made from pig. It has a strong "barnyard" flavor. It had a great texture, like nice soft braised pig skin. As it cooled it became kind of rubbery, which is to be expected. I liked it, but I must admit, if I had to choose, I preferred the cotechino. This years cotechino was the best to date. The ratio of meat, skin and fat was perfect. The sausage was tender, moist, and appropriately sticky and smooth from the skin. Really fantastic.