Fabulicious!: On the Grill Read online

  Food that deserves a Madonna mia!:

  —mealy tomatoes —cheese in a can

  —margarine —anything from The Olive Garden

  A SUPER SHORT HISTORY OF ITALIAN GRILLING

  Until World War II, outdoor grilling in America was usually reserved for camping trips. We’d moved our cooking indoors years earlier, and pretty much kept it there, except for regional practices like barbecue in the South. After the war though, people moved from the cities to the suburbs and had space. Big backyards meant big parties, and cooking outside became cool again. Small, round charcoal grills called braziers, which didn’t have vents or covers and blew ash into your face, were the only portable option until the first Weber kettle grill was introduced in 1952. Hamburgers, chicken, and steak rejoiced.

  Cooking those foods inside generally involved frying in butter, but a pan full of butter didn’t translate well to outdoor grills. All of that smoke sort of took the fun out of outdoor parties, so people looked around for new ways to season their otherwise plain meats. Most people turned to the South for grilling inspiration, using sticky, sweet barbecue sauces slathered over their food.

  Italian-Americans, however, didn’t need to find a new way since their food preparation could remain the same indoors or out. Italians—especially in rural areas like Sala Consilina in Salerno, where my family is from—have cooked on outdoor grates over open fire for thousands of years, and still continue to do so. The Mediterranean marinades, herbs, and flavors using a few simple ingredients like olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and basil, work just as well on the grill as in a pan. That light, delicious, healthy style is what I’m honored to be able to pass along from my family to yours.

  CHARCOAL VS. GAS

  While the first modern commercial grills were charcoal—and charcoal is still quite popular—I’m a gas grill girl. I love the convenience, the temperature control, and the cleanliness (or “cleansiness,” as I famously said on The Real Housewives) of a gas grill. You heat it up and get cooking. That’s it. With a charcoal grill, you have to deal with a heavy bag of briquettes, getting them lit and then waiting around, making sure you’ve used enough briquettes and in the right place, building the perfect fire, and more often than not, you and your food end up covered in black stuff. (I like to wear black as much as the next girl, but preferably with a hot necklace and some designer heels.) In short, charcoal grills are extra work, and I’d rather spend that time with my kids and my company. So in my family, we cook on a gas grill. I’m going to assume you are too.

  If you’re not, though, to cook over charcoal, just pay attention to your heat. If your charcoal grill has a thermometer built into the hood, you’re good. If not, use the hand-over-the-fire trick: if you can hold your hand just above the grate for three seconds, you have medium heat. If you can only last one or two seconds, your grill is too hot. Let the coals settle down for fifteen minutes, and check again.

  * * *Keep a Lid on It* * *

  If you only remember one piece of grilling advice, let it be this: Keep the lid closed! Just like an oven, every time you open the lid, you’re letting heat escape, throwing off the cooking temperature, prolonging your cooking time, and possibly ruining your food. I know it looks cool to stand over an open fire, but dry, overcooked food won’t make you anyone’s hero. Save the flame licking for s’mores.

  TURN ME ON

  If you are already the grill master of your domain, feel free to skip ahead to the next section, but for those of you who are grilling virgins—maybe you’re in college, maybe you just got your own place, or maybe you’ve secretly been afraid that you’ll blow up the whole block—I’m going to take it nice and slow. After reading this book, you’ll know all the culinary secrets to delicious grilled food, but that won’t matter if you don’t even know how to work your appliance.

  I don’t care if you have someone in your life who “mans” the grill for you, no girlfriend of mine is going to just prep and then stand there and look pretty while someone else cooks the food. (Unless of course, that’s your gig. And then I say, more power to you!) But seriously, that person might be out of town or stuck in traffic, and relying on someone else to even get the grill going could end up wrecking your entire meal, or worse, your party. So keep reading, baby doll!

  The first step: turning the grill on. It might seem crazy to talk about something so basic, but this is a safe place: no judgment and no shame. Modern grills aren’t as intuitive as stoves or ovens, and there is something just a little scary about a tank full of gas and a button marked “ignition.” But in truth, there really isn’t much difference. Stoves and ovens have their own source of heat, you just can’t see them as well as on a grill. You’ll hear me say this again and again, but a grill is really nothing more than an outside oven. And unless you’re made of gingerbread, there’s no reason to be afraid.

  Of course, every grill is different, so please take a few minutes to read your owner’s manual. But in general, here’s all you need to do:

  1. Make sure your grill is in a nice, open ventilated area. Not too close to the house (I have a friend who melted the vinyl siding off his house!), and not indoors or in a garage.

  2. Open the lid before turning on the gas valve. Very, very important to make sure that the gas can’t build up in there.

  3. Turn the valve on the tank or natural gas line one full turn counterclockwise, to the left. (Remember for almost anything that screws, it’s “lefty-loosey, righty-tighty.” And keep your dirty jokes to yourself!) You don’t have to unscrew it until it stops; just one full turn is enough and will make it easier to shut off quickly.

  4. Turn just one burner control knob—whichever one is closest to the ignition switch—to high.

  5. Press the ignition switch. If the burner does not light, turn it off, turn the gas off, wait for the gas to disperse, and then try again. If the burner lights, turn the other burners on to high. Close the lid and let it preheat for ten minutes.

  TURN ME OFF

  Don’t forget to turn the grill off after you’re done cooking! But first, remove the food, turn the burners up to high, close the lid, and then set a timer for five minutes to let the stuck-on food burn off the grate and to clear the burners. Then turn the gas valve all the way clockwise (“righty-tighty”) until it stops, and finally turn off the burners (this will ensure you don’t have any gas trapped in the hoses). This is the perfect time to clean your grill with a grill brush since the food residue will be nice and soft. Then leave the lid open and let the grill cool down completely before you cover or move it.

  * * *Safety Dance* * *

  —Just like in your kitchen, you should have a fire extinguisher outside near your grill for any emergencies.

  —Never store extra gas tanks near your grill.

  —Keep your long hair and any flowing summer dress or long sleeves away from the grill, as they can easily catch fire.

  SCRAPE & LUBE

  There is nothing yuckier than seeing someone grill on a dirty grate. Why would you want old black bits of food from last week sticking to your new food? Keeping your grill grate clean is a must—a must for the health of your grill, the health of your guests, and the health of our friendship! And, besides, a clean grill will give your food those super sexy grill marks.

  Cleaning your grate is super easy, and you only need one thing to do it: a long-handled, stiff wire brush made specifically for cleaning grills. That’s it! You don’t need special cleaning spray or anything else; in fact, adding chemicals to the place where you cook your food probably isn’t a great idea. The brush alone will do the trick. (And, as my mother would say, just a little olio di gomito—or elbow grease.)

  * * *Hookup Checkup* * *

  Every time you hook up your grill to a gas tank, check the connections for leaks. Make sure all burners are turned off, then turn the gas line on, and brush all connections with soapy water. If any bubbles form, you have a leak. Turn off the gas, let it disperse, and then undo and reattach the connections.
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  Make sure you scrape the grill clean before and after each use. If you make it a habit to brush the grill after cooking while it’s still hot, you shouldn’t have to do much to clean it before the next time.

  Also, don’t use any kind of lubricant—even cooking oil—to grease the grate before putting the food down. I hear that recommendation a lot, and it’s garbage. You’re only wasting the oil and encouraging flare-ups. Instead, as you’ll see in my recipes, we oil the food or let a wet marinade discourage any sticking to the grill.

  TOOLS OF THE TRADE

  You will need a few basic tools for grilling. You might already have some of them in your kitchen. But if you can, keep your grilling stuff together in a toolbox or something like that. And don’t buy one of those grilling tool sets—the ones you might think about getting for Dad on Father’s Day with handles that look like baseball bats or golf clubs—because they are more attractive than they are useful. (I know a few men like that. . . .)

  Here’s what you’ll need:

  Long tongs: This will be your main turning tool, so it should be easy to use. Get a good set of heavy-duty tongs with wide gripping ends. Look for ones that have locking mechanisms to keep the tongs closed during storage.

  Wide, thin spatula: Kind of like what you would turn pancakes with, but be sure your metal grilling spatula has a long handle so you can reach to the back of the grill to flip your burgers.

  Grilling brush: You want a sturdy, long-handled metal brush made specifically for scrubbing the gunk off of the grill before adding the food and after you’re finished grilling.

  Basting brush: A long-handled (do you see a trend here?) brush is the best kind so you can reach all over the grill. Silicone brushes are much easier to clean than the old kind with natural bristles.

  Oven mitts or potholders: Keep a pair to use just while grilling because they tend to get dirtier from soot than the ones you keep in the kitchen.

  Instant-read thermometer: This little guy has a thin metal probe to insert into the food, which works a lot better than the large stem of the old-fashioned thermometer. The instant-read part is important because you want a fast readout to keep the handle from melting. You don’t keep this kind of thermometer in the meat while it’s cooking, just insert, check, and pull out.

  Perforated grilling pan: Some thin foods can fall through the grate, and delicate ones can stick to the grate. That’s when to use this indispensable tool, which sits on the cooking grate to hold the food in a single layer. Looking like a cross between a small frying pan and a colander, grilling pans have replaced grilling baskets for their ease of use and cleaning.

  Metal skewers: For spiedini (the Italian version of kebabs), the food is cooked on skewers. A lot of grilling experts recommend bamboo skewers, soaked in water before adding the food, but the wood still burns! You can find metal skewers at just about every supermarket, and they’re reusable, so you’ll save money over time. You don’t need a fancy set because the food comes off the skewer for serving anyway, and no one will see it. That being said, the metal skewers with flat blades do the best job of holding the meat in place.

  Chimney starter (for charcoal grills only): This metal canister helps ignite briquettes without the need of messy lighter fluid. You put the charcoal in the top part, a couple of sheets of newspaper in the bottom part, light the paper, and that’s it. In about fifteen minutes, the coals will be tinged with white ashes, and you can dump them out of the canister (use a pot holder because the handle is hot!) into the bottom of the grill, and get started cooking.

  THE INS AND OUTS OF GRILLING

  Most of us learned how to grill like this: throw food on grill, and cook until done. You have more control than you think, though. You can actually grill food two ways: using direct heat and using indirect heat.

  Direct heat used to be the only way people grilled. You turn the burners up, place the food directly over the fire, and cook the hell out of it. It’s only really good for food that can be thoroughly cooked in less than fifteen minutes though—any longer and you’ve burnt the outside before the inside is done. You also have to really watch the fat dripping onto the flames, as that’s what causes dangerous flare-ups.

  Indirect heat is when you cook food not directly over the fire, but next to it, using the heat rather than the flames. To cook using indirect heat, you would turn on all your burners to preheat the grill, then turn one or two of them off, usually in the middle, and put your food over the unlit burners. The result is juicy perfection. Believe me, some grill masters use indirect heat more often than direct! Don’t think you have to char something to make sure it’s done on the inside. Here’s the solution: think of your grill as an outdoor oven.

  Ovens use indirect heat. The entire space is heated, and you trust that your food is going to cook in there just fine. And you don’t bake everything at 500°F just to be sure. The same goes for grills. You can adjust the burners to high, medium, and low levels to control the temperature, and you can move the food off the direct flame to keep it from overcooking on the outside only. Just keep the lid closed—no different from an oven.

  * * *A Great Grill Buying Guide* * *

  If you’re really just starting out or need a new grill for any reason, here are a few tips to help you get a fabulous one. I called a friend who’s worked with Weber Grills for years, and here’s what he told me:

  Price

  How much you spend is up to you. You can get a great little grill at the basic level. It’s the add-ons (side stove-style burners, work stations, illuminated lids so you can see in the dark, natural gas hookups, and so on) that make the price add up.

  Extra Side Burners

  The one extra I recommend, if you can afford it, is at least one extra stove-like burner on the side of the grill; the little kind for kitchen pots. I use mine all the time for prepping food, as you’ll see in the recipes.

  Type of Metal

  Bigger gas grills can sometimes be found with tons of bells and whistles but low prices because they’ve skimped on one thing: the type of metal that makes up most of the unit. Cheaper metal might not matter to you if you live in a perfect climate, but we grill a lot at the Jersey Shore, where the salt air can eat up a cheap grill in no time. If you want long-lasting, look for a grill that is made of heavy gauge, high-quality stainless steel and ask a lot of questions of your neighborhood vendor. The salesperson will guide you towards a reliable brand that holds up in the local climate.

  BTUs

  BTUs are British Thermal Units, which is the method used to measure heat output for stoves and grills. To get a nice brown crust on steaks, you want the highest BTUs for your money.

  Burners

  Some grills have burners that run right-to-left, and others that run front-to-back. The configuration isn’t important, but the number of burners is. The more burners you have, the more control you will have over the heat level. Sometimes you want to crank up the grill for high heat, so four burners will obviously give you more heat than three. Likewise, when you want lower heat (because not everything is blasted on high heat), you have more heat variations when you can adjust the thermostats on four burners instead of three (or two).

  Thermometer

  You definitely want a thermometer in the lid to check the heat level. It is best to have actual numbers on the thermometer face instead of just colors to indicate the level.

  Ease of Service

  Buy a brand that is easy to service, as in has great customer service and replacement parts that can be easily purchased at your local hardware superstore or grill showroom. A cheaper brand that isn’t supported in your area will cost you way more in the long run if you can’t fix a minor issue and the entire unit can’t be used. Look online for customer reviews to see which brands have the highest ratings and are good for your area.

  Indirect heat has become a lot more popular because people are cooking larger cuts of meat on the grill than they used to. Once you get the hang of it, as I have, you’ll never go b
ack to scorching things Flintstones-style.

  * * *Grilling Heat Temperatures* * *

  Around 500°F and above = High Heat

  Around 450°F = Medium-High Heat

  Around 400°F = Medium Heat

  No matter what kind of heat you use, direct or indirect, you do not have to grease the cooking grate with oil. Usually, the oil drips down onto the burners and you get flames where you don’t want them. (The exception is breaded food—an old Italian grilling method that you will love—because a little oil on the grate helps keep the crumbs from sticking.) Just oil the food itself (or use a marinade with a little oil in the recipe) to reduce sticking. One thing for sure: Never spray a hot grate with nonstick oil from an aerosol can!

  * * *Grilling No-Nos* * *

  —Overcooking your food

  —Squishing burgers with the spatula

  —Cooking with the lid open

  —Using lighter fluid

  —Allowing children near the grill

  RAW VS. READY

  One final reminder about handling raw meat since it will go on a little trip from your fridge to your backyard. Remember that you have to keep raw meat separate from everything else—including your other food, especially veggies—until it’s cooked. Be sure to thoroughly clean all counter surfaces that have come in contact with raw meat, and wash your hands in hot, soapy water for at least twenty seconds (about as long as it take you to sing “Happy Birthday” to yourself twice).