The cotechino is an Italian large pork sausage requiring slow cooking; usually it is simmered at low heat for several hours. Its name comes from cotica (rind), but it may take different names in the different production areas. According to tradition, it is served with Maize polenta and Spinach in North Region of Italy.
It is prepared by filling the natural casing with rind, pork meat (usually of secondary choice), and fat mixed with salt and spices;[2] in industrial production, nitrites and nitrates are added as preservatives. Some similar sausages exist in the Italian cooking tradition, for example musetto and zampone which are made with different meat and parts of the pig, musetto being made with meat taken from the pig’s muzzle and zampone being held together by the pig’s anterior leg skin.