Plum Gone: A Sonoma Wine Country Cozy Mystery (Sonoma Wine Country Cozy Mysteries Book 2) by A. J. Carton Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: A. J. Carton
again, the gardens blooming with roses, the hothouses filled with endlessly new varieties of life. “These are his children.” He glared pointedly at Emma. “Too bad our children don’t understand the priceless nature of his gifts.”
Chapter 5: Sunday Night – The Devil’s Business
Emma spent the rest of Sunday preparing for the wine tasting at Sergio’s restaurant. Over the past year its owner, Sergio Santagrata had become her good friend. And Jack’s new business partner. Jack had actually bailed Sergio out of serious financial difficulties shortly after saving Emma’s life. Sergio was a fine chef, but he was a terrible businessman.
Emma had recently enlisted his help preparing her new cookbook in collaboration with Buchanon Vineyards, What a Pair: Eating and Drinking Locally in Sonoma. The cookbook consisted of thirty breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Emma’s job was to research and test each recipe used in the book, all using locally grown ingredients.
She would be serving one of the dinner menus for Jack and his guests at the dinner for six he purchased at the Opera in the Vineyards fundraiser the night they first met. The dinner she selected included one of her personal favorite recipes: spinach and ricotta gnocchi, light fluffy balls of cooked chopped spinach, ricotta cheese, egg yolks and parmesan rolled in flour and boiled for a few seconds in water till they floated to the top. The trick with the malfatti (a word she’d learned meant “badly made” in Italian) was to make sure they didn’t fall apart when they were boiled. There was no miracle cure if that happened - like adding ice cubes to a curdled sauce Bernaise. There was just a soggy mess.
Emma intended to serve the malfatti in a sauce made by sautéing a large clove of garlic and a few chopped basil leaves with fresh cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil, and letting it simmer until the tomatoes burst into a light sweet sauce. The trick with the sauce was not to burn it. And finding the right ratio of olive oil to tomato. The malfatti were light. Too much tomato drowned out their flavor. Too much oil…well, of course, that was never good.
Those were the recipes she tested all Sunday afternoon, and intended to “pair” with just the right wines at Sergio’s that night. Even for home-testing the recipes, she had bought all the ingredients locally. The ricotta from Sorellina’s Creamery. The spinach from Tasso Farms. Of course, May was too early for local tomatoes. Many Sonoma gardeners didn’t even plant their tomatoes until the end of May. Emma had tested her recipe with greenhouse tomatoes. Good local tomatoes would not be available until late July at the very earliest. The best did not appear until September.
At quarter to five Emma had finished cleaning up her kitchen. She stored the sauce she made in a glass container and put it in the fridge. Then she climbed the stairs to her bedroom to dress for dinner. Jack would arrive in a few minutes. He hated to wait.
She was just buttoning up a vintage Marimekko tent dress in bold pink and red stripes when she saw Jack’s Tesla pull into her driveway. She shoved her feet into her old, comfortable black Tods loafers and grabbed her black cotton French painter’s jacket out of the closet. The night promised to be mild. Her faux Goyard sac hung on a peg by the front door. She let herself out and locked up. Jack was getting out of the car.
They kissed each other lightly on each cheek before he opened the door for her. Jack’s manners never ceased to amaze Emma. Though he wore his working class background on his sleeve, Jack’s manners were strictly Emily Post. The original 1922 edition of the etiquette book . Emma suspected that somewhere along the line Jack had memorized it.
Emma settled back into the now familiar passenger seat of Jack’s navy blue luxury car. The one the VC had invested in. Early. The only car that Jack once said he “truly desired.” He said it like he
Chapter 5: Sunday Night – The Devil’s Business
Emma spent the rest of Sunday preparing for the wine tasting at Sergio’s restaurant. Over the past year its owner, Sergio Santagrata had become her good friend. And Jack’s new business partner. Jack had actually bailed Sergio out of serious financial difficulties shortly after saving Emma’s life. Sergio was a fine chef, but he was a terrible businessman.
Emma had recently enlisted his help preparing her new cookbook in collaboration with Buchanon Vineyards, What a Pair: Eating and Drinking Locally in Sonoma. The cookbook consisted of thirty breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Emma’s job was to research and test each recipe used in the book, all using locally grown ingredients.
She would be serving one of the dinner menus for Jack and his guests at the dinner for six he purchased at the Opera in the Vineyards fundraiser the night they first met. The dinner she selected included one of her personal favorite recipes: spinach and ricotta gnocchi, light fluffy balls of cooked chopped spinach, ricotta cheese, egg yolks and parmesan rolled in flour and boiled for a few seconds in water till they floated to the top. The trick with the malfatti (a word she’d learned meant “badly made” in Italian) was to make sure they didn’t fall apart when they were boiled. There was no miracle cure if that happened - like adding ice cubes to a curdled sauce Bernaise. There was just a soggy mess.
Emma intended to serve the malfatti in a sauce made by sautéing a large clove of garlic and a few chopped basil leaves with fresh cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil, and letting it simmer until the tomatoes burst into a light sweet sauce. The trick with the sauce was not to burn it. And finding the right ratio of olive oil to tomato. The malfatti were light. Too much tomato drowned out their flavor. Too much oil…well, of course, that was never good.
Those were the recipes she tested all Sunday afternoon, and intended to “pair” with just the right wines at Sergio’s that night. Even for home-testing the recipes, she had bought all the ingredients locally. The ricotta from Sorellina’s Creamery. The spinach from Tasso Farms. Of course, May was too early for local tomatoes. Many Sonoma gardeners didn’t even plant their tomatoes until the end of May. Emma had tested her recipe with greenhouse tomatoes. Good local tomatoes would not be available until late July at the very earliest. The best did not appear until September.
At quarter to five Emma had finished cleaning up her kitchen. She stored the sauce she made in a glass container and put it in the fridge. Then she climbed the stairs to her bedroom to dress for dinner. Jack would arrive in a few minutes. He hated to wait.
She was just buttoning up a vintage Marimekko tent dress in bold pink and red stripes when she saw Jack’s Tesla pull into her driveway. She shoved her feet into her old, comfortable black Tods loafers and grabbed her black cotton French painter’s jacket out of the closet. The night promised to be mild. Her faux Goyard sac hung on a peg by the front door. She let herself out and locked up. Jack was getting out of the car.
They kissed each other lightly on each cheek before he opened the door for her. Jack’s manners never ceased to amaze Emma. Though he wore his working class background on his sleeve, Jack’s manners were strictly Emily Post. The original 1922 edition of the etiquette book . Emma suspected that somewhere along the line Jack had memorized it.
Emma settled back into the now familiar passenger seat of Jack’s navy blue luxury car. The one the VC had invested in. Early. The only car that Jack once said he “truly desired.” He said it like he
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