Create Table With Recursive Relationship

I am fairly new to SQL and I am currently trying to create
a SQL table (using Microsoft SQL) that has a recursive
relationship, let me try to explain:

I have a piece of Data let's call it "Item" wich may again contain one
more "Items". Now how would I design a set of SQL Tables that are
capable of storing this information?


I tried the following two approaches:


1.) create a Table "Item" with Column "ItemID" as primary key, some
colums for the Data an Item can store and a Column "ParentItemID". I
set a foreign key for ParentItemID wich links to the primarykey
"ItemID" of the same table.


2.) create separate Table "Item_ParentItem" that stores
ItemID-ParentItemID-pairs. Each column has a foreign key linked to
primary key of the "Item" Column "ItemID".


In both approaches when I try to delete an Item I get an Exception
saying that the DELETE command could not be executed because it
violates a COLUMN REFERENCE constraint. The goal behind these FK_PK
relations is is that when an Item gets deleted, all childItems should
automatically be deleted recursively.


How is this "standard-problem" usually solved in sql? Or do I inned to
implement the recursive deletion myself using stored
procedures or something ?