Pork and Lentils For Good Luck!
Need a good luck meal to start the new year? Eating Pork and Lentils is an Italian tradition and is considered a good luck meal on New Year’s Eve. Every year, we gather with our loved ones to celebrate New Year’s Eve. We serve a simple dish of lentils and a pork sauce over pasta which is usually served before the ball drops, along with a glass of prosecco to bring in the new year.
The Good Luck Tradition…
In Italy, a traditional New Yearโs 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.
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 to choose from!
Here are 14 recipes for you to choose from. We hope you’ll give any one of these a try and bring a “little luck” in the new year.
14 Recipes for Pork and Lentils…
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 its rich and savory flavors, and it’s usually served over rigatoni pasta. Exceptional flavors! This rigatoni all’Amatriciana is SO good, it’s even addicting!
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… Delicious lentil soup is simple and made with fresh vegetables, including baby spinach for some 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!
- 14. Sausage Ragu… is commonly known as, sausage bolognese, and itโs served with pappardelle pasta to make an exquisite hearty meal! Our sausage ragu is a thick, rich, meaty sauce, thatโs so flavorful, that youโll be tempted to eat it with a spoon.
Options to Simplify the Menu…
If you’re entertaining and prefer to simplify the meal with appetizers as a stress-free idea, try serving little bites, like sausage bites with sweet and sour dipping sauce, or a Charcuterie & Cheese Board and add a variety of cured Italian meats such as:
- Genoa Salami
- Prosciutto
- Sopressata
- Mortadella
- assortment of cheeses
- olives
- Also, try Liz’s Pita Pizza – only need to add some cooked crumbled sausage on top, then bake it for 5 minutes!
Eating Pork and Lentils is considered a good lucky meal for us and we’re sure many other traditions around the world celebrate New Year’s Eve with a special meal.
Please leave a comment and share some of those traditions! We’d love to hear about them!
…Don’t forget to PIN and Share!!
Hello Friends!ย Are you cooking with us?ย ย If you make any of these delicious pork and lentils recipes, let us know and leave a comment with a star rating below!ย We love reading them.
To all our family and friends around the world, thank you for being part of our blogging community.
Happy New Year (Buon Anno) to you and yours!
If there is a recipe that you’d like us to try or test, just let us know!
Take care for now! Stay tuned as we share our favorite recipes of the year.
xo anna and liz
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Each and every one of your dishes would make us happy. We eat pork on New Year’s Day every year. Happy New Year’s to you both, may it be a very happy and healthy one. Cheers!
Aw, thank you so much Karen! And a very Happy & Healthy New Year’s to you and your family! Looking forward to sharing additional recipes in the new year! Cheers!
“Pork and lentils, pork and lentils” โฆ it sounds like it should be song lyrics – although I’m not sure what rhymes with it. In any case, not just the pork and lentils, but all the dishes you show here look absolutely wonderful. Happy New Year!
Lol! Thanks Jeff for your sweet comment, and a very Happy New Year to you too!
Thank you Jeff!! Happy and Healthy New Year!!
I think I’ll be eating a lot of pork and lentils! Always hoping and needing luck! All of these recipes sound so good! Happy New Year!
Thank you so much! Happy New Year Abbe!!
So many delicious ways to welcome the new year. Happy New Year, hope it’s a good one.
Amalia
xo
Thank you Amalia and the same to you!! Blessings in the New Year!!
Happy New Year, Anna and Liz! Thank you for all your wonderful recipes throughout the year!
Happy New Year to you as well and thank you for your friendship this past year!!
What a fantastic roundup of great dishes! Happy New Year to you and your family. Blessings and best wishes!
Same to you Tricia and thanks so much!!
Thank you Susan for your sincere friendship this past year and for always taking the time to leave a sweet comment! We wish you the very best of happiness and prosperity in the new year!!
This must be where our Southerers got their black-eyed pea version for good luck ๐ I love lentils and a hearty lentil soup is dinner here occasionally. One of our Italian friends always does a pork roast on New Year’s Day for good luck ๐ Hope you have a happy, healthy and lucky in the new year ladies!