Grigliata mista di carne (Mixed Grilled Meats)

Frank2 July 2015mains/secondi piatti, summer37 Comments

If you want to make a big impression at your next cookout, try a grigliata mista di carne, a platter of mixed grilled meats including fresh and cured cuts of beef, veal, pork, lamb and chicken or other poultry.

Italians love to grill just like other folks, but the Italian approach to grilling is a bit different than what you may be used to. Traditional Italian grilling doesn’t go in for strongly flavored rubs or sauces. Marinades, if any, are used to enhance, never to overwhelm, the main ingredient. The red meats are typically rubbed with a dry marinade of garlic, rosemary, salt and black pepper. If you have a truly fine piece of beef, on the other hand, it will need nothing more than best quality salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Chicken and other poultry are delicious with the wet marinade used for making pollo alla diavola, with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

With all the meats grilled to golden perfection and laid out decoratively on a platter, your grigliata mista will make a spectacular presentation, turning your cookout into a real feast, fit for the 4th of July or any other special occasion.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

For the meats, at least four of these options, more if you’re hungry:

1 ribeye, strip or other steak of your choice
4-6 sausages
4-5 pork chops
4-6 veal chops
4-6 lamb chops, preferably rib chops
250g (8 oz) pork belly, cut into thick strips
1/2 chicken, cut into serving pieces
1 turkey breast, cut into serving pieces
2 or 3 cornish hens, cut in half
4-6 quail
Kebobs, made as directed in this recipe

For the dry marinade:

Peppercorns
Salt
A sprig of rosemary, leaves only
1-2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
Olive oil, rubbed in just before grilling

For the wet alla diavola marinade, for the poultry:

The juice of one lemon
1-2 garlic cloves
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper
Red pepper flakes
50ml (1/4 cup) olive oil

For finishing the dish:

Salt
Olive oil

Directions

Preparing the meats for grilling as follows:

Steak: At least an hour before you’re ready to cook, air dry the steak as directed in the post on bistecca alla fiorentina. Rub with olive oil just before grilling.

Sausage: Sausages need no marinade or other preparation, but prick them here and there just before grilling with a toothpick or sharp knife. This will prevent them from bursting out of their skins while they grill.

Other Red Meats (Lamb Chops, Pork Chops, Veal Chops, Pork Belly): Make the dry marinade by whizzing together all the indicated ingredients in a spice mill until you have a uniform but slightly rough powder. If you don’t have a spice mill, grind the pepper and finely mince the rest of the ingredients in a food processor or by hand, using a sharp knife or mezzaluna. Sprinkle the dry marinade generously on all sides of the meats and let the meat marinate at least an hour, or better several hours. (If marinating for longer than an hour, it’s best to cover the meats and put them in the fridge. Rub the meats (other than the pork belly) with a bit of olive oil just before grilling.

Poultry (Chicken, turkey breast, Cornish hens, quail): Make the wet marinade by whizzing all the indicated ingredients together with a whisk or blender. Pour over the poultry pieces, cover and place in the fridge, and let them marinate for at least an hour, or as long as overnight.

Grilling the meats:

Start with the poultry, which generally take the longest to cook, over a moderate hot flame. Grill until the pieces are golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Total grilling time should be about 30-40 minutes for the ribs, 15-20 minutes for the chicken or cornish hens, 5-10 minutes for quail.

A few minutes after your start your poultry, add the pork chops, veal chops, and/or sausages, grilling them, too, over moderate heat until golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Total grilling time should be about 10-15 minutes. (NB: If using very thick chops, you may want to put them on at the same time as the poultry.)

The pork belly should also cook over moderate heat to allow some time for the fat to render, about 5-10 minutes total. You want the strips to brown on both sides but you don’t want them as crisps as you might make bacon. Pork belly is at its best when crisp on the outside but still chewy on the inside.

For me, the only way to eat a steak is nicely seared on the outside and rare on the inside, flash grilled over the highest heat you can manage, about 3-5 minutes per side for your average steak. Grill the lamb chops just the same way. The steaks and chops should then rest on a baking rack for five minutes or so while you finish grilling the other meats.

For the kebobs, follow the directions found in this post.

If any of the meats (other than the steak or lamb chops) are done before the others are ready to serve, you can move them to a cooler side of the grill, on a warming rack above the grill if you have one, or simply set it aside and then, just before serving, return it to the grill just long enough to heat it up.

Serving your grigliata mista:

Slice the steak on the bias across the grain into moderately thick slices. If using a long sausage such as luganega (see Notes), cut it into serving pieces. Now arrange all your meats decoratively on a platter. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil all over the meats, except for the sausages and pork belly if using. Serve your grigliata mista right away, with lemon wedges if you like.

Notes on Grigliata mista di carne

For the best grigliata mista experience, make sure to choose at least one cut each of beef, pork, lamb and chicken or other poultry. And sausages really are a must. (Veal is so expensive I’d consider it optional.) Then, if you’re hungry, double up on your favorite kinds of meat.

For me, the best steak for grilling, bar none, is a bone-in ribeye. But, of course, I wouldn’t turn down a strip steak, either, or the chewy but delicious hanger, skirt, flank or the lesser known flap steaks. (NB: Flank and flap steaks are sometimes marketed as bavette steaks; the flap stake is apparently called the ‘sirloin tip’ in New England.) T-Bones and Porterhouse steaks are wonderful grilled alla fiorentina, but best eaten on their own.

Make sure to choose at least one cut each of beef, pork, lamb and chicken or other poultry. And sausages really are a must…

For the lamb chops, there’s nothing like rib chops—through they’re ridiculously pricey. Shoulder chops are an economical and delicious alternative. (Personally, I’ve never thought that loin chops were worth the price tag.) If you can find them, coil-shaped luganega sausages (a staple of Italian street festivals) are the finest choice for grilling. But if you can’t, try the generic ‘Italian Sausage’ you will find in most supermarkets, sweet or hot or both. Try to look for smaller, organic chickens. Those tasteless factory farm monsters with artificially swollen breasts that you’ll find in most supermarkets aren’t ideal for this kind of simple treatment. Or you might want to opt for another kind of poultry like a Cornish hen or quail, or even turkey, cut into serving pieces.

For more tips on grilling steak, see our post on bistecca alla fiorentina. The tips there are really relevant any time you want to grill a steak.

Sides and Sauces

Don’t forget some vegetable side dishes to go with your grigliata mista. Grilled vegetables are wonderful, of course, but braised beans like the Tuscan favorite fagioli all’uccelletto are a classic accompaniment, as are fried peppers or greens sautéed in oil and garlic. But even a simply mixed green salad, simply dressed all’italiana, would do the trick. To wash it all down, I’d go for a light pinot or rosé.

And if you want a sauce for your grigliata mista, you could go for a salsa verde or salsa rossa, the kind you would serve with a bollito misto. Or if you want something slightly provocative, the piquant chimichurri sauce.

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