Italian Sausage

You've probably been wondering how they figure out just how many calories there are in, say, a 4-ounce Italian sausage. I've been wondering the same thing. You may have been wondering about it for the same reason I've been wondering about it: Maybe they're wrong. Maybe calculating calories is a science that is about as exact as handicapping horses. Let's consider a liberating possibility: Maybe a scoop of low-fat cottage cheese decorated with fresh orange slices has just as many calories as a 4- ounce Italian sausage.

Italian sausage with tomato sauce is a classic. Add pasta and you've got the quintessential Italian American meal. It's earthy, robust and always pleasing. Take those same ingredients, add more vegetables and a little broth and you'll have a wonderful new dish - Italian Sausage, Tomato and Summer Squash Soup. Unlike old-fashioned soup recipes, the one that follows doesn't require hours of simmering for its flavors to develop. It's ready to eat in less than an hour and its serves two - so it's gone in a meal instead of a week.

As a history teacher in the "off season" at Ocean City High School, Angelo Di Bartolo is well aware of the legacy of Richard's Grill, the once popular '80s beach grill snugged into a wooden shack tucked behind the dunes where North Street hits the sand. There have been a long list of short-lived pretenders in Richard's wake ("half a dozen at least!" Di Bartolo says) but the chef and his chef and partner, Jim Aller, now in their fourth season, have it down with simple breakfasts (and lunches)

'Tis the season when holiday activities take precedence over meal preparation. But there is no need to run around with an empty stomach while shopping, decorating or writing out holiday cards. With the following recipe for a sausage sandwich from Chubby's, which is located on Henry Avenue near Walnut Lane in Roxborough, all holiday-related errands can be accomplished. As Chubby's owner Lon Clark explains, the bulk of the sandwich can easily be prepared ahead of time and heated up for an easy dinner or lunch.

Parmigiano-Reggiano, king of Italian cheeses, is much beloved in our family. We like it grated over pasta, baked on macaroni and stirred into a steaming bowl of soup until it becomes chewy. It's wonderful served as a snack with a glass of red wine before dinner and ethereal shaved like a halo over crisp salad greens. For dessert, we like to eat jagged pieces of the cheese with wedges of ripe pears and warm toasted walnut halves. Authentic Parmesan cheese is made in a legally defined area in more than 1,000 small dairies through the northern Italian countryside, including Parma, Reggio, Emila and Modena.

Parmigiano-Reggiano, the king of Italian cheeses, is much beloved. Use it grated over pasta, baked on macaroni and stirred into a steaming bowl of soup until it becomes chewy. It's wonderful served as a snack with a glass of red wine before dinner and ethereal shaved like a halo over crisp salad greens. Jagged pieces of the cheese with wedges of ripe pears and warm toasted walnut halves make a perfect dessert. Authentic Parmesan cheese is made in a legally defined area in over 1,000 small dairies through the northern Italian countryside, including Parma, Reggio, Emilia and Modena.

In the competitive world of the South Jersey supermarket business, details like the color of cheese or the texture of Italian sausage can mean the difference between a store's success or failure. Mayfair Foodtown, a North Jersey-based chain of 39 supermarkets, recently sold its five South Jersey stores, largely because the company did not understand the product needs of local customers, according to sources familiar with the sale. A Foodtown spokeswoman did not return phone calls early last week.

MISSING: 7-foot Italian sausage wearing a chef's hat and a bow tie. Guido, one of the Milwaukee Brewers' base-running sausages, is nowhere to be found after it was last seen hanging out in bars. Someone wearing the Klement's Racing Italian Sausage costume recently posed with patrons at the Milwaukee Curling Club in Cedarburg. The $3,000 costume was in a backroom at the bar during a Feb. 16 fundraiser. Someone saw the sausage walk out the door that evening and, according to the Journal Sentinel , it hit two more bars that night but hasn't been seen since.

It was a feast fit for 470 kings. During the seven-course meal, they consumed 90 bottles of wine,204 loaves of bread, 100 pounds of pasta, 100 heads of lettuce, 6 cases of peppers, 80 pounds of chicken gizzards, 100 pounds of Italian sausage, 30 pounds of beef and 235 chickens. Just another Men's Night at the Italian Social Club in West Ches-ter. "Other nationalities have traditional foods and get-togethers, but not with this many courses," said financial officer Dominic DiArcangelo, an officer for 26 years.

When you are dining at Mezzanotte, it's difficult to distinguish the neighborhood patrons from those who have stopped in from elsewhere. Everybody appears to be at home here. Diversity is the buzzword at this Fairmount restaurant, from clientele to food. Friendly and animated chatter floats through the casual, multilevel dining arrangement. Soothing grays and greens are punctuated with rose and black; saucer-like lamps are suspended over the tables. A glass wall looks out onto 17th Street.

MISSING: 7-foot Italian sausage wearing a chef's hat and a bow tie. Guido, one of the Milwaukee Brewers' base-running sausages, is nowhere to be found after it was last seen hanging out in bars. Someone wearing the Klement's Racing Italian Sausage costume recently posed with patrons at the Milwaukee Curling Club in Cedarburg. The $3,000 costume was in a backroom at the bar during a Feb. 16 fundraiser. Someone saw the sausage walk out the door that evening and, according to the Journal Sentinel , it hit two more bars that night but hasn't been seen since.

As a history teacher in the "off season" at Ocean City High School, Angelo Di Bartolo is well aware of the legacy of Richard's Grill, the once popular '80s beach grill snugged into a wooden shack tucked behind the dunes where North Street hits the sand. There have been a long list of short-lived pretenders in Richard's wake ("half a dozen at least!" Di Bartolo says) but the chef and his chef and partner, Jim Aller, now in their fourth season, have it down with simple breakfasts (and lunches)

PHILADELPHIA MIGHT be the best beer-drinking city in America, but we're the wurst-eating city, too. Grilled bratwurst, paprika-spiced bockwurst, smoky knackwurst, mustard-covered weisswurst and jerkylike landjäger - along with liters of German lager, these are the staples of Oktoberfest. Or, as Doug Hager, co-owner of South Street's Brauhaus Schmitz declares, "Throw away your knife and fork . . . Wurst may not be very refined, but it is manly. " The other day I sat down with Hager and his executive chef, Jeremy Nolen, for some "frank" talk.

In the fine-dining wilderness of the near suburbs that cradle Northeast Philadelphia, it wouldn't take much for a chef of Augusto Jalon's skill to find a band of grateful patrons. One of them, a happy silver-haired gent on his way out of the hexagonal dining room at Tavolo in Huntingdon Valley, paused in the parking lot to assure me as I headed in: "It's always excellent. " The Ecuadorean-born Jalon, 47, clearly has an outgoing personality to stoke such a loyal following, a natural warmth that extends to his solicitous (albeit sometimes stiff)

'Tis the season when holiday activities take precedence over meal preparation. But there is no need to run around with an empty stomach while shopping, decorating or writing out holiday cards. With the following recipe for a sausage sandwich from Chubby's, which is located on Henry Avenue near Walnut Lane in Roxborough, all holiday-related errands can be accomplished. As Chubby's owner Lon Clark explains, the bulk of the sandwich can easily be prepared ahead of time and heated up for an easy dinner or lunch.

Hot or sweet, succulent links of savory sausage, drenched in rich tomato sauce and covered with bell peppers would certainly qualify as Italian soul food. Served on a crisp kaiser roll or with your favorite pasta, this hearty meal represents a zesty and sensual feast. The calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium in this classic Italian dish can be quite excessive. It is possible to re-create it, however, in two presentations: Sweet Italian Sausage With Peppers, and Sauteed Polenta With Sweet Italian Sausage.

The plexiglass windows may be scuffed to a foggy patina, but a bright noon sun cut through the Morning Glory Diner to illuminate the grill, where owner Samantha "Sam" Mickey is a short-order flurry of cookery and chatter. "Talk, talk, talk," she clips to a few of her pals, who gather around the counter in debate over an exotic new beverage. "They say it tastes like a chocolate diet shake . . . not that I've ever tasted one of those. " She ends the thought with a chuckle as the oven door opens, billowing out wafts of the world's cheesiest macaroni, baking away inside as big as a loaf, its crust toasting golden and crisp.

Anyone who doubts the rising caliber of many of today's chain restaurants need only visit the Italian Bistro in Cherry Hill. Super-handsome place. Excellent dollar value. And a menu so wide-ranging there is something for virtually everyone. Even the little ones have a special menu. While bistro generally implies a small, simple dining spot, this Bistro is huge and imaginatively decorated. If you can visualize an Italian trattoria along the Adriatic and then quadruple its seating capacity, you'll get a feel for how large this place is. It's dramatic in design.

Parmigiano-Reggiano, the king of Italian cheeses, is much beloved. Use it grated over pasta, baked on macaroni and stirred into a steaming bowl of soup until it becomes chewy. It's wonderful served as a snack with a glass of red wine before dinner and ethereal shaved like a halo over crisp salad greens. Jagged pieces of the cheese with wedges of ripe pears and warm toasted walnut halves make a perfect dessert. Authentic Parmesan cheese is made in a legally defined area in over 1,000 small dairies through the northern Italian countryside, including Parma, Reggio, Emilia and Modena.

Parmigiano-Reggiano, king of Italian cheeses, is much beloved in our family. We like it grated over pasta, baked on macaroni and stirred into a steaming bowl of soup until it becomes chewy. It's wonderful served as a snack with a glass of red wine before dinner and ethereal shaved like a halo over crisp salad greens. For dessert, we like to eat jagged pieces of the cheese with wedges of ripe pears and warm toasted walnut halves. Authentic Parmesan cheese is made in a legally defined area in more than 1,000 small dairies through the northern Italian countryside, including Parma, Reggio, Emila and Modena.