Page 16 of Indescribable Love
So after dinner that night, Nikki asked what her favorite brand of tomato sauce was, and that led to an entire night of talking about making sauce and pasta from scratch. Now, she was teaching them. It wasn’t something she normally did with anyone other than her family, but everyone joined in, including Simon. They were making homemade four cheese ravioli with her nana’s sauce, bruschetta, a salad, and Celia, who loved to bake, was making a chocolate vanilla berry panna cotta tart for dessert.
Right now, the kitchen was a complete disaster area, but it felt just like home and she couldn’t help but smile. They didn’t have a pasta machine to do the bulk of the rolling and thinning of the dough, but everyone took a turn with the rolling pin to get it to the desired thinness.
“Alex, don’t eat the dough!” Nikki said with a laugh before looking over at Juliette. “Sorry.”
“No worries. It’s fine for him to eat a little like that.” Then she smiled at the boy. “But it’s so much better when it’s cooked and filled with all the cheeses and covered in sauce, trust me.”
“O-kay,” he replied with a small pout, making Juliette feel kind of bad.
“But how would you like to taste the sauce?” she asked him. “I’ll put some in a bowl and you can dunk some of the Italian bread in it. What do you say?”
His little eyes went wide and he looked at his moms to make sure it was okay. When they nodded, he turned back to Juliette with a big smile. “Yes!”
Walking over to the stove, she grabbed a ladle and placed a small amount of sauce into a bowl and brought it over to Alex before giving him a couple of slices of bread for dunking. “Here you go, buddy. Enjoy!”
Simon came to stand beside her and cleared his throat, causing her to look at him oddly.
“You okay?”
He nodded to the bowl of sauce. “What if the rest of us wanted a taste? Can we get a bowl of sauce to dunk?” Then he pouted and gave her the saddest, soulful eyes she’d ever seen.
Her lips twitched.
“Are you seriously asking for a snack right now?”
He nodded.
“But…”
“Alex got a snack,” he said, sounding pitiful.
And looking far too attractive than a grown man pouting should.
With a small sigh, Juliette walked back over to the stove and put some sauce in a larger bowl and turned to place it on the island. Then she sliced the rest of the loaf of bread up before looking at everyone. “Now everyone can dunk, okay?” And even though she thought she was being funny, she realized she sounded a bit…stern.
And a little like her grandmother, who usually followed up a statement like that by slapping hands away from the rest of the food.
Oh God…is that really who I’m turning into?
Then—because she knew she had to lighten the moment—she picked up a slice of bread and was the first one to dunk it in the bowl. Taking a bite, she closed her eyes and hummed with approval, instantly relaxing. When she opened her eyes, she smiled, “It could use a little more basil, but other than that, I think it tastes great!”
That’s when Simon, Nikki, and Celia all grabbed a slice of bread and tasted the sauce, complimenting her the whole time.
“I am so sorry I served you jarred sauce the other night,” Nikki said. “And I can’t believe I thought it tasted fine. I think this one little taste has ruined me for all other sauces.”
Beside her, Celia laughed. “I’ve been telling you for years that jarred sauce is nothing compared to the real thing!”
“Okay, but you didn’t know how to make the real thing either! You just doctored up the stuff in the jar!”
Shrugging, Celia popped another piece of bread into her mouth before looking over at Juliette. “We were all in Italy last year with Simon for the tour, and your sauce reminds me of what we ate there. And after watching you make that from fresh tomatoes and just a handful of ingredients, I feel like with a little practice, I can totally do it too!” She paused and almost looked embarrassed. “Not that I’m saying it’s easy…and I didn’t mean to minimize your cooking skills…”
Jules held up her hand to stop her. “I didn’t take it that way at all. Trust me. And this is just the quick sauce. My Nonna, not to be confused with my Nana, makes a sauce that literally cooks for an entire day and she won’t serve it until the following day. I just chose this one because it was easier.”
“She cooks a sauce all day?” Nikki asked in confusion. “Why? Like…that just seems like such a long time for a sauce.”
“Well…in that sauce she’s got meatballs, sausage, pieces of pork, beef, and sometimes pepperoni. And believe me when I say there is a tremendous difference when the meat cooks in the sauce like that. The flavor is to die for!”
They all looked at her and she knew what they were saying without words.