Cotechino, wasabi mash and green apple

Cotechino with lentils is the New Year's Eve dish, and it's perfect as it is. But cotechino can hold its own in a different dish too. This isn't a traditional recipe: it's an idea to try when you have guests, or when you feel like a change.

Why wasabi

The traditional plate has three things on it: the cotechino, soft and rich; something simple to go with it, like lentils, mashed potatoes or polenta; and something sharp that cleans the palate, mostarda or cren, grated horseradish. Here the roles stay the same, the ingredients change.

Wasabi isn't as far away as it seems. It's a relative of horseradish, from the same family of plants, and the tingle that goes up your nose comes from the same substance (Wikipedia). In fact, the wasabi in a tube you find in the shops is made mostly of horseradish (Il Fatto Alimentare).

What you need

For one cotechino:

• 800 g of floury potatoes;
• 50 g of butter and a glass of milk;
• one or two teaspoons of wasabi paste;
• a green apple and half a lime, or half a lemon;
• a teaspoon of honey and a tablespoon of apple vinegar;
• toasted sesame seeds and chives.

Step by step

1. The cotechino: cook it as usual, three or four hours over a low heat. Here's how to cook cotechino, step by step.
2. The mash: boil the potatoes in their skins, peel them while still hot and mash them. Stir in the butter and the hot milk, and go easy on the salt: the cotechino is already full of flavour.
3. The wasabi, last of all: with the heat off, add the wasabi a teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go. Its kick fades with heat: if you let it boil, only the colour is left in the mash.
4. The apple: cut it into matchsticks, skin on, and sprinkle it with the lime juice so it doesn't turn brown.
5. The browned slices: cut the cotechino into slices about two centimetres thick and sear them in a very hot non-stick pan, with no oil: their own fat is enough. A minute on each side, turning them gently, because they're soft. At the end add the honey and the vinegar and turn them for a moment: they become glossy, sweet and sour at once, as with mostarda.
6. On the plate: a spoonful of mash, two or three slices on top, then the apple, the sesame and the chives. To the table at once, nice and hot.

If wasabi seems too much

Try the version from home: instead of wasabi, a teaspoon of freshly grated horseradish in the mash. The same tingle, the same idea. And the browned, glossy slices are just as good on New Year's lentils.

If you try it, tell us how it turned out when you come by the shop.