SAUSAGE-FENNEL-CORNBREAD STUFFING
	    (Modified from the the November 1995 Gourmet Magazine)

The night before make the cornbread.  This is a rather dry cornbread and
not intended for eating.

1-1/2 cups yellow cornmeal (I mix cornmeal, which is rather fine, with the
      coarser grained polenta about 50-50)
1 cup flou
1 Tbl. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
3 Tbl butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 and heavily grease an 8-inch square baking pan (I use
vegetable shortening for this).

In a bowl mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.  In another bowl
whisk together milk, egg, and butter.  Add to dry ingredients, stirring
until well combined, but do not overstir.  The batter will be quite thick.

Pour batter into pan and bake for about 25 minutes, until pale golden and
dry on the inside.

Let cool for five to ten minutes in the pan and then remove from the pan.  When
thoroughly cool, wrap in a tea towel and let stand out overnight.  The cornbread
should be dry and just a little bit stale.

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casing discarded, broken up into small pieces.
   I buy mine at Tully's market on San Mateo, between Constitution and Lomas,
   but any good sweet Italian sausage should do.
1/2 stick of butter
2 medium onions, chopped fine
2 medium fennel bulbs, chopped fine.  These are available at the Montanita
   Food Co-op and some grocery stores (on an erratic basis).  Cut off the
   very bottom of the root, which is too hard, and all the stalks and stems.
   You may want to throw away the outermost layer of the bulb too, as it is
   often dirty and banged up.
2 tsps. anise or fennel seed.  (The fennel bulbs are harvested before they make
   seed -- these can be found in the glass bottles in the spice section of the
   regular supermarket.)
2 tsps dried thyme
2 tsps dried tarragon leaves
1 very large bowl for mixing

Using half the butter, saute the sausage over low heat, turning frequently,
breaking up any larger pieces, until the sausage has rendered most of its fat
and is fully cooked (this is important if stuffing the bird!!).

Remove sausage from the pan, leaving the fat.  Add the rest of the butter and
then saute the onion and fennel over low heat for about 10 minutes until soft,
buttery and golden.  Add in the anise/fennel seed and herbs and saute about
2 minutes more, turning constantly.

Mix sausage and onions/fennel in a large bowl, then add the cornbread crumbled
into pieces about 1/2 inch square (plus all the little bits that will fall
off as you crumble the cornbread).  Mix the mixture gently until cornbread is
distributed evenly thoughout.

Stuff the bird, tamping the mixture in firmly.  If you have a 14 lb. turkey
you will have about a small loaf tin of stuffing left over, which can be
baked for an hour separately, moistened with turkey drippings from the
bottom of the pan.