It's not quite the new year, but this dish certainly makes an appearance at midnight on New Year's Day in Italian culture. It's thought that eating the soup will give you good luck for the coming year. I personally just eat it because it's warm, cozy, but hearty and healthy, though I suppose if you have all those things, then your luck must be good, right?
This dish comes together in about an hour, but only because the lentils take a while to cook. You can speed that up by making this in a slow cooker, I would suggest checking on the consistency of the lentils after about 20 minutes, to see if they're done, and proceeding from there.
Servings
10 servings (2 cups per serving)
Ingredients
1 lb spicy italian chicken or pork sausage (omit for vegetarian/vegan)
1 yellow onion, diced
3 clove of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2 large carrots, diced
6 cups red lentils
1 (14.5 oz/412 g) can of diced tomatoes
12 cups chicken broth
3 bay leaves
Salt & Black Pepper to taste
Equipment
1 6 quart/liter pot heavy based pot* or pressure cooker
*Trust me, if it's not heavy based, your lentils will burn to the bottom, so unless you want to stir constantly, use a thick based pot.
Directions
Heat the pot or pressure cooker on medium high. If using chicken sausage, add olive oil. Add in the sausage meat, breaking it up as it cooks. Drain excess oil if necessary. If not using meat, skip to the next step.
Add in the onions, garlic and carrots and sauté until the onions are soft. Now add the tomatoes and saute until the liquid is about 50% reduced.
Add in the lentils, broth, and bay leaves. Bring the heat up to high until the water simmers, then reduce to medium low. If using a pressure cooker, bring heat to high, and reduce once the vent pops.
After about 45 minutes simmering in a standard pot, or about 20 minutes in the pressure cooker, your soup should be ready.
I love to pour a bowl of this and freshly grate some Parmeggiano Reggiano on top and dig in!