8 Ways To Bring Italian Grilling Methods To Your BBQ

Cooking outside on a grigliata, the Italian word for barbecue, is a way of life in Italy. The seductive southern European country is renowned for its balmy climate, which offers an abundance of fresh local ingredients, making Italian cooking famous worldwide. It is only natural for the Italian people to cook outside, and what better way than over hot coals?

The Italian barbecue is a form of celebration; food is sourced with care, prepared using traditional methods, and eaten with loved ones. No traditional Italian household would be seen slapping store-bought burgers onto a gas barbecue; Italians recognize the beauty of cooking rituals that give a nod to an ancestral ways. A barbecue is not a meal to be rushed but an event to be savored.

Italian cooking relies almost entirely on ingredients that are locally available and in season. Italians will strive to source wood collected from the local forest, use meat from local farmers, vegetables grown in the garden, and a dessert of ripe peaches picked from the family orchard. Italians believe in letting the true flavors of food shine through; for this reason, they eschew marinades and sauces in favor of quality ingredients and simple dressings. Most cooking is done with the addition of nothing more than a splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt, or perhaps a quick squeeze of a lemon or sprig of basil.

To learn a bit more about Italian grilling, we asked chef Rand G. Packer, a graduate of the esteemed California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and chef at La Rocca Rossa, to help us understand how the beauty and simplicity of Italian grilling methods can be translated to your next BBQ.

Italy is a land of bounteous produce where the finest natural ingredients are sourced straight from the land, and the local people adhere to the philosophy that less is more. Fresh local and seasonal ingredients are the building blocks of Italian cuisine: tomatoes, olives (and olive oil), garlic, basil, oregano, and cheese are core ingredients –– as is organic home-reared meat and poultry, and seafood caught straight from the Mediterranean Sea.

Chef Rand G. Packer says that provenance is extremely important to Italian cooking. He tells us, "Even if you can't get ingredients straight from Italy, the addition of Italian ingredients like balsamic vinegar and olive oil also helps give each dish a purposeful sense of place that will resonate with guests."

The backbone of Italian cooking relies on traditional ingredients, which are in season, ideally freshly picked from the garden. A true Italian menu adapts to the seasons, so to be truly authentic in your Italian grilling methods, look for meat, vegetables, and herbs in season. Some meats, like pork or beef, are available year-round, but you should also consider seasonal meats like lamb or suckling pig in springtime and game meats like venison, pheasants, partridge, or duck in autumn. Out of season, Italians traditionally preserve their meats by making sausages or aging beef to create steaks.

Many Italian fish dishes work well on the barbecue if you live near the coast. Try grilling a whole fish lightly brushed with olive oil or threading gamberoni (shrimp) onto a skewer. Remember that even seafood is seasonal, and Italians prefer to cook whatever is caught that day.

Italian cooking is a lesson in simplicity. Food is flavored using natural, locally grown ingredients and shies away from the sugary, thick, commercially made sauces and marinades that we have in the States. When preparing food to grill on your barbecue, remember the adage less is more. Meats, seafood, and vegetables are typically marinated only in olive oil and salt, possibly adding classic Italian herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, or garlic. The famous Florentine steak is seasoned with nothing more than olive oil and salt.

When cooking seafood, Italians often add a citrus element, which helps to brighten the flavors and balance the brininess of the fish (think oysters and lemon). In Italy, this would be balsamic vinegar, lemon, or orange. Citrus marinades are not solely reserved for seafood; the iconic Salmoriglio marinade is made from lemon, olive oil, oregano, and water and is often served alongside steak.

To up your Italian grilling methods, consider marinating your food after you cook it. This reverse marinade is a common feature of Italian cooking, where meat, fish, or vegetables are cooked on the grill with nothing more than a sprinkling of salt and then marinated afterward. 

Chef Rand G. Packer suggests marinating food before and after for optimum flavor. Per Packer, "My preference is to always marinate before. This way, you'll end up with more pronounced grill marks and a deeper flavor in the protein you're working with," he says. "After grilling, I like to brush on a purée of olive oil, a mix of herbs, and lemon for more dimension." The idea of marinating after grilling is a testament to the quality of the ingredients, which lose flavor or are wasted when cooked on the grill. 

Italian barbeque is as much about how they cook their food as what they cook. The art of cooking food over an open flame dates back centuries. Records show that the Romans often grilled small birds or animals over an open flame. Chef Rand G. Packer talks to us about his favorite way of grilling.

"Open flame grilling is my favorite method," says Packer. "This way, you have more control over the amount of flavor produced from the wood, adding more depth and dimension to the dish. You also get to be outdoors while you're cooking, which adds to the experience each time."

Italian grilling is done directly over the coal, in a hot heat, unlike American-style barbecue, which specializes in low, slow cooking (think briskets and pulled pork). For Italian-style grilling, ensure that your cut of meat is taken out of the fridge in advance, brought to room temperature, seasoned lightly with salt, and placed directly over the open flame. 

Authentic Italian barbecues are always cooked with wood or coal rather than gas, partly in adherence to ages-old Italian tradition but also for the flavor that a wood or coal fire imparts to the food. A wood barbecue, in particular, gives the food a distinctive flavor typical of Italian grilling. When selecting your fuel, consider using woods like oak, hickory, apple, or cherry, which add sweetness to the food. 

A common feature of Italian grilling is the use of a plancha or piastre to cook food, particularly smaller cuts of meat, vegetables, and Italy's infamous spiedini. The history of grilling food on a hot plate is hard to pinpoint ––some say that it can be attributed to the Aztecs who grilled cornbread on hot clay stone, but in Europe, plancha grilling is often associated with Spanish cooking, where huge metal of stone tablets are laid over hot coals to cook vast amounts of food for fiestas. Today, the plancha, better known as a piastre in Italian, is a very popular grilling style in Italy.

A plancha ­­(whose literal translation is iron grill) usually consists of a large flat piece of iron, steel, or stone placed over wood or coal. There are several benefits to this method of indirect cooking; the plancha can become extremely hot, but the heat is evenly dispersed throughout the grill –– this allows cooks to achieve an even sear, and the high temperatures work to caramelize food and achieve an enviable crust on meats, In addition, the plancha is helpful to grill foods that are smaller and tend to slip between the crack of a traditional barbecue grill. Today, you can buy a gas-fired plancha grill, but for a truly authentic Italian touch, it's best to source a sheet of thick metal and place it directly over the coals.

Spiedini is the most well-known and popular dish in Italian barbecue. Spiedini is the Italian word for skewer, and almost any combination of meat, vegetable, cheese, or bread can be skewered and roasted on a barbecue. The tradition of skewering beef originated in the Abruzzo region of Italy, where  during days away from home by cutting up small pieces of mutton and placing them on the hardy stems of local herbs. While spiedini was originally made using mutton or lamb, today, anything that can be cut into small chunks and skewered is Spiedini.

Traditional spiedini are not marinated at all; they are just seasoned with salt and pepper. However, as with many Italian food dishes, the preparation varies depending on the region. In Abruzzo, where spiedini is thought to have originated, spiedini is called Arrosticini, which is made with mutton or lamb and skewered plain. In Sicily, veal is commonly used, and the meat pieces are rolled in breadcrumbs before cooking.

Interestingly, Kansas City is renowned in the U.S. for its chicken spiedini. The first spiedini originated at Garozzo's Ristorante in KC. Today, the restaurant still serves spiedini according to its original recipe: chicken, olive oil, basil, garlic, and breadcrumbs.

To make your spiedini, cut your meat or vegetables into equal sizes (around one inch square). Cutting them equally is important to make sure that they cook at the same time. You can marinate them in a simple olive oil dressing or add a combination of lemon, garlic, and herbs. Thread the ingredients tightly onto a skewer, alternating vegetables with meat if you are using both, and then simply lay over hot coals or cook on a plancha grill. 

You cannot have an Italian barbecue without meat; think plump garlic-stuffed venison sausages, rows of pinkly perfect prawns, or a whole roasted suckling pig crisped over open flames. Italians love the meatishly magical Bistecca alla Fiorentina, the Italian version of our t-bone steak. Bistecca alla Fiorentina, or Florentine steak, is cut from the Italian Chianina cow, weighing up to 3,000 pounds. The steak sits around 2 kg, meaning it can easily be shared between several people. The best way to serve this steak is to season it with salt and pepper and then sear it directly over an open flame on a wood or coal fire.

Grilled Italian sausages, or salsiccia, are a barbecue staple. Thick and coarse, there are a few variations on the sausage; the dolce sausage is a sweet version, usually made with pork flavored with fennel or anise, or there's a piccante or spicy sausage with chile flakes. Of course, there are the usual regional variations: the small spiral-shaped sausages of Sardinia are stuffed with wine, fennel, garlic, and pepper, while in Liguria, rosemary and chili pepper are added. These often spiral-shaped sausages can be chopped up into stews or served cold alongside salads, but we think they are best charred over hot coals.

For other Italian meats that can be grilled on the barbecue, consider the finger-licking goodness of homemade porchetta (arguably the best slow-roasted) or a thick slab of pork belly. Or look to the sea for Mediterranean-inspired seafood recipes like skewered shrimp, flame-grilled calamari, or a whole flat fish baked over hot coals.

Meat is a core part of Italian cuisine, but is usually eaten in moderation. To create a truly authentic Italian barbecue, you must go heavy on the vegetables. Chef Rand G. Packer says, "Grilled vegetables are extremely popular in Italian cuisine! They're usually served as a side dish, but you can also eat them as an entree."  Packer isn't talking flaccid salads and mayo-slathered coleslaw here. Italian grilling methods involve cooking various vegetables on the grill the same way you cook meat. Chef Packer says, "To grill vegetables, simply brush them with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil before grilling and brush them with puréed herbs after cooking."

Traditional Italian vegetables include eggplant, peppers, and zucchini, which can be sliced into thick chunks and added to spiedini, or sliced thinly and placed directly on the grill or plancha. However, Italian cooking works with local and seasonal vegetables, including onions, mushrooms, squash, and carrots. While root vegetables seem the most obvious given their toughness, which allows for roasting at high temperatures, using a plancha makes it possible to grill softer above-ground veggies, too: why not try tomatoes, asparagus, artichokes, or beans?

Radicchio and endive's bitter leaves are classic Italian vegetables best served grilled. Try chopping the heads into halves or quarters, drizzling them with a little olive oil, and placing them directly over hot coals, aiming for a slight char. Some recipes call for the addition of a little lemon juice or vinegar to counteract the bitterness, particularly of the endive. Try grating parmesan over the vegetables once cooked for a naughty yet intrinsically Italian touch.

What is a barbecue without dessert? In Italy, you may be offered a bite of decadent Tiramisu or a sour scoop of the local lemon gelato, but the Italians have perfected the art of dessert on the barbecue, too.  

Picture a perfectly ripe peach picked from a tree, cut in half, and laid across hot coals. Peaches are an incredible fruit to cook on the grill –– the hot temperature softens and caramelizes the fruit, giving it a sweet, smoky flavor that can rival any dessert on the menu. You can grill peaches plain or, sprinkle a bit of brown sugar on the peaches, or cover with a thin layer of olive oil before cooking for a boost of flavor. Serve your peaches with a drizzle of honey or a dollop of Greek yogurt. Chef Rand G. Packer says he cooks stone fruits, in particular, peaches, by coating them in sugar and placing them on the grill, telling us, "The result is a beautifully caramelized fruit that is the perfect addition to any dessert, adding a sweet-yet-smoky flavor."

Fruits of all kinds can be grilled at the barbecue. In Italy, the preference is for stone fruits, like the aforementioned peaches, nectarines, figs, and plums. Some fruits, like figs and peaches, are often grilled on the barbecue and used in a salad. While Italians tend to stick to stone fruit, we can highly recommend grilling pineapple, bananas, or mangoes for a tropical touch.