Thanks, Heather.

* * *
Now GRRRR!!!!!

: Calling on Al Dente:

Please tell the folk at Whole Foods who make the recipe for Italian pork sausage to MAKE AUTHENTIC ITALIAN SAUSAGE!!!!

As a short-cut, instead of making a special trip to Vace, I bought a single mild Italian sausage in Georgetown to make a fairly time-consuming, elaborate ragu that calls for chicken thighs, giblets, pancetta, 4 oz. ground beef and 4 oz. of mild Italian sausage without fennel.

I was a fool not to look at the sausage before it was wrapped, but I've purchased them pre-packaged before in other pinches and never had a problem. So, here I am meezing my place, I roll open the brown wrapper and the stuff is studded with BIG GREEN LEAVES OF PARSLEY little black specks of something that looks like it might be onion seed (not black pepper) , and TONS of fennel that has no business being in mild pork sausage (you order finocchio if you want finocchio in your sausage) . None of this stuff added for the set that spreads blueberry cream cheese on their cinnamon bagels and buys jars of $14 spaghetti sauce with brown paper tied over the cap with twine should be there.

The reason Marcella Hazan's books advised Americans to buy breakfast sausage for a number of recipes back in the 70s and 80s was because Italian-American sausage-makers made only two types of sausage and neither was what Italians would consider ordinary "sweet." Vace makes a plain sausage. I would have gotten breakfast sausage had I known.

I think it's actually fairly safe to assume that anything labeled "Italian sausage" in a US supermarket will contain fennel seed. I always assume that.

I have to apologize for kvetching so melodramatically, but T Hersch, you're probably right.

The thing is, Vace doesn't include fennel. I just picked up a few things and even asked while making my purchase. The smell of mild sausage takes over the fridge unless you put into another container, but it's not herbal (? seedy?) at all.

What disturbed me more was seeing all those big blotches of whole parsley leaves. It took a while to pick all the green bits and as many seeds as I could out of the meat before adding it to my ragu. Ultimately, the flavor of the sauce was not affected.

I asked at Vace (Bethesda) today, and was told the only ingredients in the mild Italian sausage are pork, garlic, salt, and pepper. Boy do they have a lot of garlic, though.

Well, as a matter of fact, they shall contain fennel, apparently it's the law. From the FDA web site:
TITLE 9--ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS

CHAPTER III--FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE

PART 319--DEFINITIONS AND STANDARDS OF IDENTITY OR COMPOSITION--Table of Contents

Subpart E--Sausage Generally: Fresh Sausage

Sec. 319.145 Italian sausage products.

(a) Italian sausage products are cured or uncured sausages
containing at least 85 percent meat, or combination of meat and fat,
with the total fat content constituting not more than 35 percent of the
finished product. Such products shall be prepared in accordance with the
provisions of paragraph (a) (1), (2) or (3) of this section, and shall
contain salt, pepper, and either fennel or anise, or a combination of
fennel and anise. Such products may contain any or all of the optional
ingredients listed in paragraph (b) of this section.

Does this mean Vace's is breaking the law? If so, I'm glad! I just made a ragu last night that called for Italian sausage and when I removed the meat from the casing, I saw no seeds.

You can fend fennel and non-fennel Italian sausage at an amazing little Italian deli in the Triangle section of Wheaton called Marchones. They also make fresh Zeppoli pastries for St. Joseph's day, which is coming up mid-March. Ah, my little New England heart warms to them! I have never seen them before outside my native Rhode Island, which is crawling with Italian immigrants....

for what its worth, we used to get zeppolis (and cannolis) for St. Joseph's day on Long Island.