Stuffed cotechino in crust

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Also this year for Christmas I will prepare the recipe of the stuffed cotechino in crust, it was so successful last year that I will cook it again this year.

Stuffed cotechino in crust is prepared using puff pastry or brisee pastry, spinaches and speck.

INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PEOPLE:

• 1 pre-cooked cotechino di Modena of 500 gr.
• 1 rectangular puff pastry or fresh shortcrust pastry
• 300 gr. of fresh spinach
• 20 gr. of grated cheese
• 1 egg for the dough
• 1 clove of garlic
• extra virgin olive oil as necessary
• Salt to as necessary
• pepper as necessary
• nutmeg as necessary
• 1 knob of butter
• 1 egg yolk + milk to brush the pastry
• 100 gr. of speck

PREPARATION

First wash the fresh spinach under water and dry them.Then you take a saucepan, pour a drizzle of oil and add the spinach.
Cook a few minutes with the lid closed and over low heat until cooked, if necessary add a little water.When the spinach wil be cooked, drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a pan, brown a clove of garlic in a shirt with a little butter.
So, remove the garlic, add the spinach and season them with salt and pepper for a few minutes.
Then transfer the spinach, which must be as dry as possible, into a food processor together with an egg, cheese and nutmeg.

Then, put aside the freshly prepared cream of spinach.

Now move on to the preparation of the cotechino that you will cook in a pot with water covered by its casing, respecting the cooking times indicated on the package.
Once cooked, make a small cut on the package to let out all the liquid inside the meat, remove the skin and let it cool.

Now you stuff the cotechino take some baking paper of the right size to cover it completely.
Then, you put on a layer of speck on which you will spread the spinach cream and then the cotechino in the center.
Roll up the meat completely, seal like a candy and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, turn on the oven to 180 ° C. static mode.

Now, you can roll out the puff pastry or shortcrust pastry and place the cotechino without parchment paper on top of the shortest part of the pastry and near the edge.

So, roll the pastry completely covering the cotechino, close the sides tightly by folding the flaps over the belly of the meat, if you want you can enrich it with some decoration with leftover pasta.
Then brush with a beaten egg yolk with a little milk, prick the surface to let the steam escape during cooking and bake.

Consider cooking for about 10-20 minutes, as soon as the pastry will be colored, remove the cotechino from the oven.
Before cutting, wait for it to cool and serve with a side dish of stewed or mashed lentils.