Fabulicious!: On the Grill (3 page)

I also adore the way we cook summer food because grilling is healthier, sexier, and keeps the heat out of your house. For starters, you can't really grill super unhealthy foods. Anything fatty or extra processed, like a Twinkie, is not going to work. It will melt or dissolve back into the mess of chemicals it came from. To stand up to the high heat and wide spaces on a grill, food needs to be real, solid, and raw.

Grilling food is also healthier because you are essentially burning the fat off of it. When food is fried or even baked, it sits in its own oil and absorbs the oil that you added to the pan. The higher heat also means grilled foods generally have a shorter cooking time, which means that veggies lose less of their precious nutrients.

Finally, my favorite part of grilling is that you can do it in your bikini. It's not only sexy, but also great for weight maintenance and weight loss. Preparing and eating food in a bathing suit is a great way to keep you motivated to eat healthy and exercise, and naturally keeps you from wanting to eat too much. I heard once that if you really want to lose weight, you are supposed to eat in your underwear. Not very practical, but it keeps you accountable. There's no hiding your “yummie
tummie” when you're staring at your belly button between bites. That might sound extreme, but swap it for your swimsuit and surround yourself with good, positive friends, and you may just find the kick start you've been looking for. In fact, if you start right now—eating healthy food and moving your bones—you can look even more amazing by the end of the summer.

Believe it or not, I am positive this is not the best barbecue book that you'll ever buy. Why? Because it's not a barbecue (or barbeque or BBQ) book at all. It's a grilling book. Although some people use the words “grilling” and “barbecue” interchangeably, there is a difference.

They are both methods of cooking food over an open flame, but, technically, when you barbecue something, you cook it at a low temperature for long, long
time; when you grill food, it's hot and fast. Barbecued food, like pulled pork or beef brisket, depends on smoke and rub flavors and lots of sauce to give it its signature tender taste. It's mostly done in the South and over charcoal or wood fires. Grilling, which we do in Italy, uses the heat from a grill to cook, but not really flavor the food, like chicken, seafood, steak, and vegetables. That's where we come in!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)