Palm Sunday is a day celebrated by all Christians world wide.  In the Italian Christian world it's
one of the top Catholic holidays of the year.  As a kid it was just like Easter Sunday, only without
the Easter Bunny leaving baskets, candy, and all the traditional baked ricotta pies, meat, grain, and
sweet.  And, nothing new was bought to wear on Palm Sunday, that was for the following week.
In all other ways it was celebrated with lots of joy and fervor.  Lasagne, Manicotti, big Roasts,
Antipasti, the usual would load the tables down.  I opted this year for a pasta with a sauce known
as a Ragu'...yes, that's where that family came up with the name for that bottle of "spaghetti" sauce
called Ragu'.  I'm sure that person would be very surprised today at what a jar of Ragu' tastes like, i'm
sure it is nothing like the one that was first made.  So here's your Italian language/food lesson for this
Palm Sunday 2011, the word Ragu' doesn't mean a jarred commercially prepared tomato sauce for
macaroni..it's a word that means a group of ingredients slow simmered in a gravy..usually meats and
vegetables.  My ragu' for today was a saute' of  sausage meat, onions, garlic, and mushrooms in olive
oil, then simmered with red wine, then tomato paste, then a can of crushed San Marzanos, fresh herbs,
and chunk of Pecorino Rind...
Start with 1 1/2 lbs of loose Italian Sweet Fennel Pork Sausage Meat...In a large saucepot, heat 2 tbs. of
Olive Oil, add the meat..let this brown, stirring, takes about 10 minutes on medium...don't do this on too
high a flame, you just brown the meat and it will still be raw on the inside.  Slow..today you are cooking
slowly..this slower heat will extract maximum flavor out of the sausage..rendering the juices and fat.
Now add 1 large diced onion, add 1/2 tsp. of salt, black pepper..Stir, let the onions turn translucent. 
About 8 minutes.  Now add the mushrooms, 1 cup of sliced mushrooms, your choice on this.Don't
get your foodie in an uproar, i love the taste of simple button mushrooms in this...or cremini. When the
mushrooms look soft, add 1 minced clove of garlic...stir, then add 1 tsp chopped fresh oregano, 1 tsp.
chopped fresh thyme and 1/2 glass of red wine.  Blend well and cook for 5 minutes.  Now add 1 can
of Tomato paste.  Stir and then add 1 28oz,. can of hand crushed San Marzanos (or any other Italian
plum tomato). Add a pinch of salt and pepper, a pinch of sugar...and 1 tsp of crushed fennel seeds.
Now add 1 28oz can of water, blend well and simmer for 1 1/2 hours stirring frequently.  Simmer
means simmer, on your lowest setting.


Prepare a box of your favorite Pasta Asciutta (Dried Macaroni)...i used Barilla's Celentani, those
cool corkscrews that love a good hearty sauce (ragu').  Lots of pecorino on this one with a side
of Ricotta topped only with cracked black pepper.  A nice rich sauce with lots of complex flavors
from the pork, the wine, tomatoes, aromatics, esp. the fennel.
I bought a nice crusty Filone loaf, a cross between a regular Italian/French Baguette and
Ciabatta.  The salad was (take this sentence as a lazy way to write another recipe) rinsed
and dried Baby Spinach tossed with 1/2 a lemon juice mixed with Olive Oil, sea salt, and cracked
black pepper..top it with thin slices of red onion.


Enjoy the rest of this Spring evening (still too cold here in the Northeast, what's up with that??)..
and Happy Cooking during this holiday week (Easter and Passover).