If you've read my latest novel, The House on Liberty Street — Home of Second Chances, or even if you haven't, Adamaria's Sonoma County Italian American kitchen comes alive in full flavor at this festive time of year.
As with all my books, fiction and non-fiction, I like to infuse the pages with delicious, regional food so that my readers' senses are fully immersed.
Sense of place is key in my writing. And protagonist, Adamaria is rooted in what I like to coin The Tastiest Little Place on Earth, right here in Petaluma, at the gateway to Sonoma Wine Country.
Adamaria was raised in a rambling Victorian home, post Second World War Sonoma County and her kitchen retains the taste memory of traditional Italian American holiday foods. She misses the wild porcini mushrooms her late husband, Aldo would bring home. And the wild boar he hunted. Fresh Dungeness Crab was a holiday staple. She regales her granddaughters with nostalgic memories over paired-down Christmas Eve crab sandwiches.
Volpi's Ristorante and Speakeasy Bar appears in The House on Liberty Street as a character in and of itself. Adamaria remembers waiting outside in her father's truck as he "shopped" in this historic Italian American former grocery store, with its convenient Speakeasy in back.
Local readers recognize several iconic spots around town, though most of the action takes place in the fictional Victorian house which is located near St. Vincent de Paul Church on Liberty Street.
"Raymond licked his lower lip. He dabbed his mouth and chin with the corner of a starched napkin. He sprinkled parmesan over the dish of small packages of ravioli that appeared before him, topped in a marinara sauce, just as a crowd of a dozen or so rowdy ranch hands funneled in through the door, like a herd of young cattle, heading in for their night feed."
This painting hangs on a wall in a tucked-away ristorante in a remote village in Tuscany. I snapped a photo of it a visit a few years ago and I saved it and it has since come to embody a younger Adamaria in my mind, seated with her late husband and their dog, Doc.
Adamaria is happy to have her daughter Gracie and grandchildren living with her, especially at Christmas, when she insists on setting a festive table for an entire week. She's been cooking up a storm when the story opens on Christmas Eve and the two youngsters smell the tantalizing aroma of a homemade Italian sauce as it wafts up the creaky old stairs to where they are playing a festive game of make believe.
"A rich scent of stovetop onion, garlic, celery and carrots sauteed in olive oil had snaked its way at a sluggish pace over the course of the long, early hours of the winter's day, finally making its way upwards, despite an absence of heat, into the confines of the second floor. A diffusion of odor particles had infused its crumbling insulation with the warming notes of Adamaria's bubbling, stovetop ragu."
She serves a roasted leg of lamb on Dec 25th with roasted veggies, following her classic, stuffed Cannelloni.
Despite Gracie's protestations that Adamaria's Tiramisu is too tipsy for children, Adamaria insists that it wouldn't be Christmas without it.
Lena appears in the story toward the end. She brings a very different cultural mix of holiday food traditions into melting pot that Adamaria's kitchen is destined to be. Lena was raised in Atlanta. She remembers as a girl, the lighting of the great tree on Rich's Department Store bridge, in Atlanta each December and riding on the Pink Pig alonside real reindeer.
"Iced Brownies in the basement."
Adamaria's Tiramisu
Ingredients
Package of Lady Fingers
Tub of mascarpone cream
Four eggs
5 tablespoons of sugar
Brandy
Espresso coffee
Cocoa powder
Instructions
Beat egg yolks and sugar and fold in mascarpone cheese. Beat egg whites until light and fluffy. Add them all together. Mix cold coffee and brandy in a separate bowl. Soak lady fingers lightly in coffee and brandy and lay in a single layer in a shallow dish. Add a layer of cream mixture and sprinkled cocoa. Repeat layering. Sprinkle top with cocoa powder, cover and chill in the refrigerator.
Back Cover Image: Gail Foulkes
Adamaria’s Sauce with Braciole & Polpette Meatballs
Mariana Sauce
¼ cup olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
2 sprigs of freshly chopped basil
2 28-ounce cans of whole peeled tomatoes
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
Braciole
3 pounds of flank steak
2 tsp minced garlic
½ cup of chopped basil
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese
Splash of Vermouth
Twine or string for tying up the braciole
Polpette Meatballs
2 pounds ground sirloin
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup chopped parsley
1 tsp minced garlic
2 cups fine Italian breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Olive oil
Instructions
Heat oil in a mid-size heavy pot over medium heat. Sauté onion, stirring frequently, until soft, 8–10 minutes. Add garlic and continue, stirring occasionally for another 5 minutes; stir in chopped basil. Add tomatoes, crushing with your hands as you go; season with salt and pepper and simmer. Reduce heat; simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick, at least an hour. Sauce can be made a few days ahead if kept in the refrigerator.
Tenderize flank steak evenly. Add garlic, basil and season to taste. Sprinkle small handful of parmesan cheese. Roll up flank steak tightly and secure with string. Brown flank steak in pot with olive oil and a dash of vermouth, rotating until all brown. Take out. Make sauce and then add meatballs and add flank steak and meatballs into sauce and simmer on low for two to three hours.
For the polpette meatballs, combine ingredients into a large bowl, saving a little bit of the breadcrumbs to roll the meatballs in before frying. Shape into balls and bake or fry. Add to sauce.
Adamaria's Cannelloni
Ingredients
Half pound each of ground veal and turkey
8 oz fresh ricotta cheese
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
Bunch of fresh spinach
Salt & pepper to taste
2 packets of Cannelloni shells – oven ready preferred, otherwise boil and drain.
Instructions
Brown veal and turkey and drain excess fat. Add spinach and cook until limo. Add salt & pepper. Let mixture cool in a bowl, 30 minutes or so. Add ricotta cheese and sprinkle in a cup of parmesan cheese. Filling is now ready to stuff shells. Place filled shells in a two-inch baking pan. Pour sauce over, not too much! Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Cover in foil and bake in oven at 375 F for 20 minutes to half an hour.
Lena's Brownie's
Ingredients
2 sticks salted butter
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
4 large eggs
½ cup plain flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
Chocolate icing
½ cup salted butter
2-3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup warmed milk
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350f. Line a 9×13 inch pan with parchment. Melt butter and 1 ½ cups of choc chips until smooth. Stir in sugar, vanilla and instant coffee. Whisk eggs in a small bowl for a minute or two. Stir into chocolate mix. Add flour, cocoa and baking powder. Stir until combined. Stir in the rest of the chocolate chips. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for around half an hour or until the brownies are just set. Cool. Slice into bars.
To make icing, add butter, two cups of powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and a quarter cup of warm milk into a bowl. Beat until smooth, adding more milk gradually. Spread icing thickly over cooled bars. Add festive sprinkles for the holiday.
Panettone features big in The House on Liberty Street. Gracie and her girls take a walk in the rain (puddle jumping included) to collect a Panettone loaf from a festively-lit downtown bakery for the Christmas Day breakfast table.
"Back when Gracie was the girls age, Adamaria had busied herself preparing several loaves of Panettone in the busy days before the holiday, one foe the centerpiece of her own family's breakfast on Christmas morning and the rest as gifts for neighbors.
Gracie remembered, wistfully, how much she had looked forward to helping out with the wrapping of these aromatic treats, encasing them, as they'd cooled, as did the bakery, in big, square sheets of crinkly cellophane, tied with strips of red, green and white ribbon.
It conjured a wonderful and nostalgic scent memory as she headed back out of the bakery door, her girls on either side, the three of them stepping into a shower of pearlescent raindrops. Welcoming thoughts of the lemony aroma of the distinctive sweetbreads that had wafted so luxuriously through the old house on many a winter's day filled Gracie's head as they strode along the sidewalk."
Click here for a link to King Arthur Flour Recipe for Panettone
Replicate Adamaria's wonderful recipes with the best spices on the market. This Christmas season, Sonoma Spice Queen stocks a gift box with book and Italian spices and seasonings in store on Fourth Street in downtown Petaluma. I just dropped off a stack of signed books which can be purchased separately. Spice Queen has a handy online store. Click here to shop.
Readers have been discovering The House on Liberty Street on Audiobook, narrated by Petaluman Jennifer March. The audiobook is available wherever you buy your audio material. If you're new to audiobooks, consider a download of The House on Liberty Street to listen to on a rainy winter's day or on a long journey. Jennifer did a wonderful job with the narration. You will find yourself in the house itself in no time.
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If you're a history lover, consider picking up gift copies of The House on Liberty Street at Petaluma Historical Library and Museum store to boost the museum's fundraising and operational coffers. Spice Queen and Copperfields Petaluma have books in store. If you'd like signed/gift wrapped copies sent directly by me, or to collect, let me know. You may reply to this post. Sorry, no overseas mailing. The book is available on Amazon UK, Australia and around the world.
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