With clam sauce is one of the most popular ways to serve up spaghetti, and rightly so: it's tasty, and easy to make if you have a can or jar of clams. Tastier still if you have frozen clams, which I find similar in flavor and texture to live clams, though not quite as rich.

The one thing neither canned clams nor frozen clams have is clam shells, which might strike you as a funny thing to get excited about -- after all, you don't EAT them -- but they do contribute considerably to the appearance of the dish, and it is also fun to delicately lift the shells and suck the clams from them. And this is why Italian restaurants often use live clams in their clam sauces, and why you'll find sacks of live clams on ice in just about every well stocked Italian market.

They are well worth the extra time they require.

Some clam sauces, and more:

• Spaghetti with clams in a white, tomatoless sauce
• Spaghetti with clam sauce alla Viareggina, which has tomato
• Spaghetti allo Scoglio has all sorts of shellfish
• Not Pasta? Ligurian Rice with Clams
• How to prepare live shellfish

And where was this shot taken? On the east bank of Lake Garda, at the Ristorante Costadoro. Quite nice!

Well, to be honest sausages never go completely out of season, because they're wonderful grilled at any time, but Italians are much less enthusiastic about using them in other ways during the summer months. Now that temperatures have begun to drop, they're reclaiming their place at the table.

First, a sausage recipe: Salsiccia Lucchese, a recipe from Lucca, which will yield mild sausages. If you want to spice them up, add crumbled red pepper to the mixture (I'd start going easy on the first batch).

And Next, Some Ideas:

• Sausage and Savoy Cabbage Soup, or Minestra di Verze: The combination does a superb job of warming the heart.
• Risotto with Sausages, or Risotto con le Salsicce: Quite simple, and very tasty. Comfort food.
• Rigatoni alla Burrina, with Sausages and Tomatoes: This is especially nice with sun-ripened tomatoes, though you can use canned.
• Potato and Sausage Ravioli - Ravioli di Patate e Salsiccia: A delightful filling for stuffed pasta!
• Sausage and Potatoes - Salsicce e Patate: Mountain fare, from ip in the Alps.
• Fagiuoli all'Ucceletto - Tuscan Tomatoey Beans: They're a nice side dish as is, but become one of the most satisfying cool weather main courses if you cook some sausages with the beans.

I recently got a note from James, who says:

I enjoy things Italian, not the least of which is its food. Part of that enjoyment is the proper presentation of its food in the context of meal time.

There is some information as to what constitutes proper form of the meal: hors d'oeuvres, courses, etc. Not so much info regarding the recipes of the menu items, what is an acceptable first course, and what would be an appropriate second course, in light of the first course, etc.

I suppose it seems as though I'm overly interested in food, but it is more important to me that I have presented a meal in what is considered good form. It goes without saying that the meal should be well cooked, but more important, it should be well presented.

Could you direct me to any publication or organizations that address this issue?

To which I replied:

Dear James,

I do discuss the organization of an Italian meal (the meals of the day, actually) here .

In terms of form, it's important to remember that Italian cooking is quite seasonal, with people tending to cook the vegetables in season (eggplant in summer, cabbage in winter), and make much lighter dishes during the summer months than they do in the winter.

Exactly what combination of dishes gets served depends upon the tastes of the cook, but in Italy cooking tends to be local. Neapolitans cook Neapolitan, Tuscans cook Tuscan and so on. People do occasionally cook favorites from elsewhere, and there are some standard dishes, e.g. the cotoletta alla milanese, but most dishes are local. So if you're preparing a Sicilian first course, you probably won't want to follow it with a second from Friuli Venezia Giulia.

I hope this helps!

Adding to my reply, in the past I did put up meals for the week, and will resume doing so now. Among the meals posted to date are:

• Summery, with pappa al pomodoro followed by scaloppine
• Wintery, revolving around oranges
• Pasta and meat to serve with Chianti
• A cold weather meal revolving around broth and boiled meats
• Fish, and more specifically salmon
• A meaty fall meal, for when the mist comes in
• Another early fall meal, featuring fish and Gavi wine

Or Three Sauces, and this is what you'll get with your bigoli (thick-stranded pasta) if you order them in a traditional eatery in the Veneto: Tomato Sauce, Peas, a Tomatoless Meat Sauce, and you sauce your pasta as you see fit, adding grated cheese to taste. It can be very nice!

The meat sauce, you wonder? If the restaurant is very traditional it will be made from rovinazzi, or chicken giblets:

2/3 pound (300 g) chicken giblets (gizzards, cockscombs, hearts, and livers)
A sprig of fresh sage
A sprig of fresh rosemary
1/2 cup (100 g) unsalted butter
1 cup (50 g) freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano
Salt

Clean and wash the gizzards.

Bring a small pot of water to boil, salt it lightly, and simmer them for 10 minutes. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon, and dice them finely.

Use a needle to prick the cockscombs and boil them for 5 minutes. Drain them, skin them, and chop them.

Wash the hearts and livers under cold running water, removing filaments and fat, and all traces of bile (greenish spots on the livers). Chop the hearts, and crumble the livers with your fingers.

Heat the butter with the sage and rosemary, and when it begins to crackle add the chopped gizzards, cockscombs and hearts, and simmer for about 15 minutes over a low flame.

Remove the herbs, add the livers, season to taste, and cook, stirring, over a brisk flame for about 3 minutes.

It's done!

Serve your bigoli (figure 3/4 pound, or about 320 g for 4 people, and time the cooking so they will be done when the sauce is), with the giblet sauce, tomato sauce, peas, and grated cheese on the side for those who want it. The wine? Red, and Valopicella will be perfect.