Sausage with Lentils

• 1 cotechino or poaching sausage, of ¾-1 lb (available from delicatessen shops)
• ¾ lb

Soak the lentils for three or four hours, then wash them and place in a pan of cold water with the peeled cloves of garlic and stick of celery. Bring slowly to the boil, skim and simmer gently for 1-1½ hours, adding salt half-way through, when they have started to get tender. Three-quarters of an hour before you want it ready, put the sausage, pricked all over with a needle, into a pan of cold