Vegetarian BBQ or Verdure grigliate

Believe it or not, but BBQ is a tradition in Italy as well. I can cite several countries that state that they are the traditionalist of BBQ and I cannot say who originated this in reality.

Just to support the cause for the Italian origin of BBQ, I will tell you that the traditional dish of Florence is beef steak. We call it bistecca, which is a way of distorting the English word “Beef Steak” into Italian. It seems that this really comes from some English speaking guys visiting Florence. Again this goes back to the time when Florence was a real melting pot! Might be that the same guy imported BBQ in the UK and then to the US? Just joking, I don’t think you need a tradition for setting up an open fire and putting a grill on top of it to cook meat and vegetables….

I am currently collecting some research info and will write a post on bistecca soon. Here I would like to give you here some hints on Veggie BBQ. When I lived in the UK this meant cooking on the grill Vegetarian hamburgers and chicken legs….i.e. a sort of wood stick with some soya stuff that resembles a chicken leg. Why should a vegetarian be willing to eat something that resembles chicken?

I think that you can do excellent things on a grill without meat and fish and I will suggest you some here:

Fettunta: Slices of Tuscan bread grilled and seasoned with smeared garlic, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Jummy. One of the best things in life! Really!

Grilled peppers: Wash and cut the peppers in quarters. Remove the seeds and the whitish filaments and place on the grill. Remove when tender. The skin will be black by this time. Put the peppers in a Polyethylene bag (the one you get at the supermarket when buying vegetables) and leave a couple of minutes. You will see after this “treatment” how easy is to remove the skin. Place all the peppers in a tray and season with the “battuto” I will describe in a minute.

Grilled eggplants (or aubergines): Wash and cut the aubergines in 1 cm thick slices lengthwise. With a cooking brush smear a fine layer of extra virgin olive oil on each side of the slice. Grill turning regularly until tender. Place the aubergines in a try and season with the battuto

Grilled zucchini or courgettes: Follow the description for the egglants but the slices should be ½ cm thick.

Battuto:. Finely cut Parsley, Garlic (2 cloves), Chilly Pepper (1) and smear on the vegetables. Add extra virgin olive oil to cover completely the vegetables.

Serve with bread. You can also serve as a complimentary dish mozzarella or burrata.



You will not miss meat at all!