Pork and Lentils For Good Luck! (New Year’s Eve Traditions)

Capodanno – New Year’s Eve Traditions. Eating Pork and Lentils is an Italian tradition and a good luck meal on New Year’s Eve.  It symbolizes prosperity, abundance, and good luck. Every year, we gather with our loved ones to celebrate New Year’s Eve and share a delicious meal, accompanied by a glass of Prosecco to bring in the new year! 15 Delicious Recipes for you to choose from.

 

The Italian New Year’s Eve Good Luck Tradition… 

In Italy, the two most important weeks when Italians find themselves at the holiday table for different celebrations are between December 24, the Feast of the Seven Fishes, and January 6th, the Epiphany.

The second important meal only to the Christmas feast, is the New Year’s Eve dinner! The traditional New Year’s Eve meal is all about symbolizing abundance, wealth, and good luck.  There are specific foods that no Italian would fail to prepare or eat to bring in the New Year.

As Italian-Americans, our family likes to keep the New Year’s Eve traditions and simplify them with a simple dish of lentils (like our lentil soup) and pasta with pork sauce, like our rigatoni all’amatriciana. It is usually served before the ball drops, along with a glass of prosecco to ring in the new year.

Lentils are a highly nutritious food, rich in protein, fiber, and essential minerals such as potassium, iron, and folate. While pork symbolizes prosperity and abundance due to its high fat content, pigs are seen as moving ahead into the new year with positive momentum.

So join us and experience an Italian New Year’s Eve tradition as you indulge in pork and lentils this New Year’s Eve with some of our favorite recipes! 

Here are easy-to-make recipes (15 recipes) for you to choose from. We hope you’ll try any of these and bring a “little luck” in the new year.

Pork and Lentils Recipes For Good Luck (15 Recipes)

1. Lentil Soup: Simple, light, and delicious tasting, Lentil Soup makes a great starter to any meal and is perfect to serve on New Year’s Eve!  Loaded with vegetables, lentil soup can be made ahead and reheated minutes before serving.

 

 

2. Rigatoni All’Amatriciana: This tomato sauce is simmered with pancetta (Italian bacon) and onions to give it rich and savory flavors, and it’s usually served over rigatoni pasta. Exceptional flavors! This rigatoni all’Amatriciana is SO good, it’s even addictive!

3. Sausage Bites with Sweet & Sour Dipping Sauce:  Hosting a Gathering?  These sausage bites with sweet & sour dipping sauce may just be the ideal thing!  Super easy and fun to serve.  Make ahead and reheat before serving. These bites will surely be a hit and disappear as soon as they hit the table!

 

4. Lentil Salad with Sweet Peppers: A refreshing, light lentil salad is served chilled and dressed with a tangy vinaigrette.  This lentil salad with sweet peppers is very healthy and makes a colorful and flavorful dish!

 

5. Sicilian Sausage and Peppers: Made with 5 main ingredients and easy to prepare, Sicilian Sausage and Peppers is a crowd-pleaser and can become one of the best meals for you to serve on New Year’s Eve!  Super easy to make and bake. Best of all,  this meal is easy on the wallet!

6. Sausage Stuffed Peppers: Delicious stuffed peppers with sweet sausages are easily baked and served.  Great for serving as a side dish, or make smaller ones to serve as appetizers!

 

7. Classic Fettuccine Alfredo with Sausage:  This favorite classic is made with already cooked sausages, light cream, butter, and Parmesan cheese, making this fettuccine Alfredo come together in minutes!

8. Honey-Lime Glazed Pork Tenderloin:  Pork Tenderloin gets a sweet and zesty glaze loaded with honey, lime juice, zest, and ground cumin.  A wonderful combination of flavors and spices makes any pork tenderloin taste delicious!

 

9. Tagliatelle with Fresh Tomato Sausage Ragu: This is a simple and easy sausage ragu sauce recipe made with ground sausage and cherry tomatoes cooked in a skillet. Then it is tossed with tagliatelle pasta for a quick meal that is hearty and delicious!

10. Classic Pork Chop Marsala This is a flavorful Italian classic dish for Marsala with pork chops. Amazingly delicious, with step-by-step photos to show you how to whip this up in minutes!

11. Lentil and Spinach Soup: A simple dish and recipe! Delicious lentil soup is simple and made with fresh vegetables, including baby spinach for additional healthy greens and flavor.

12. Zucchini Stuffed with Sausage Ragu and Cheese: This gluten-free recipe always turns out fantastic! Everyone who tries it will fall in love with these zucchini boats.

13. Baked Stuffed Pork Chops with Prosciutto and Cheese: These are boneless pork chops stuffed with simple ingredients, coated with an Italian breadcrumb mixture, and baked. Crispy and delicious!

15. Sausage Ragu… is commonly known as “Sausage Bolognese” and it is served with pappardelle pasta to make an exquisite, hearty meal! Our sausage ragu is a thick, rich, meaty sauce that’s so flavorful – you’ll be tempted to eat it with a spoon!

Around the World Traditions…

Eating Pork and Lentils is considered a good luck meal for us, and we’re sure many other traditions around the world celebrate New Year’s Eve with a special meal. 

Leave a comment and share some of those traditions!  We’d love to hear about them! 

We would like to extend our most heartfelt thanks for your support this year and look forward to continuing our Italian-American and International culinary journey with you in 2026. To all our family and friends, thank you for being part of our blogging community.  

Happy & Healthy New Year for 2026!

 

If there is a recipe that you’d like us to try or test, please let us know. In the meantime, take care for now! Stay tuned as we share our favorite recipes of the year.

Thanks for stopping by…

xo anna and liz