Mario Batali's grilling tips

Mario Batali's latest cookbook, Italian Grill, is a must-have for any food enthusiast who craves that little taste of the outdoors during the hot, Canadian summer. In this exclusive excerpt, Batali outlines the four basic grilling techniques that will lead to consistently exceptional meals. What's the one thing everyone needs to remember? Keep a lid on it!

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Mario Batali's grilling techniques
Cover the grill! You may be tempted to keep a close eye on that big juicy steak as it cooks, but, in a word, don't. With the exception of thin fish fillets, sliced vegetables, and other foods that cook very quickly, almost everything should be cooked with the grill lid down, to keep the heat and flavorful smoke inside. You could think of covered grilling as roasting over coals. And remember that there's no need to keep turning and moving the food around as it cooks, except to avoid flare-ups. When searing meat, give it a chance to develop nice dark grill marks. No matter what you are grilling, it will cook more evenly and more quickly if you leave it alone -- turn it only once, or as directed in the recipe.

Some of the recipes in this book tell you to oil the grill before putting the food on it. You can use a long-handled basting brush or a clean rag dipped in oil to do this (you may want to hold the rag with tongs). Lightly oil the grate just before putting the food on it. In some cases, you many need to brush the food with oil too -- or oil the food instead of the grate.

Direct and indirect grilling
Although a hot fire is essential for many recipes, not everything should be grilled over high heat. And some foods, such as big cuts of meat and whole birds, should be grilled over indirect heat so they can cook to the desired doneness without incinerating the outside. Some recipes use both direct and indirect heat: a piece of meat may be seared over the hottest part of the grill, for example, then moved to the cooler part to cook through.

Grilling over direct heat means cooking the food over the hottest part of the fire. It's what you want for thinner cuts, for fish and shellfish, cut-up chicken, sliced vegetables -- i.e., when you want to sear the food, giving it great color and a delicious flavor. For direct cooking on a gas grill, after preheating the grill, leave all the burners on high, put the food on the grill, and cook as directed. For a charcoal grill, leave the coals in a mound for very intense heat, or spread them out a bit if you need a larger cooking area. Have all the vents open so there is plenty of oxygen to feed the flames.

For indirect cooking on a gas grill, preheat all the burners on high, then turn off the center burners if you have three, or one of the burners if you have two. If the recipe calls for it, turn the other burner(s) down. Put the food over the cooler part of the grill to cook -- and be sure to cover the grill. There are various options for cooking over the indirect heat in a charcoal grill. The simplest is to move all the hot coals to one side of the grill and cook the food on the other, cooler side. Or divide the coals and mound them on two opposite sides of the grill, leaving the center bare, and cook over the center part. In either case, it's a good idea to put a drip pan filled with a little water under the cooler part of the grill to prevent the dripping from burning. A third option, if you are cooking something like chicken thighs, is to leave the hot coals in the center of the grill and arrange the food around the cooler perimeter.

From Italian Grill. Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Copyright © 2008 by Mario Batali. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. To purchase, visit amazon.ca.