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The Italian Way to Grill
The grill is out and the season is starting. These five Italian recipes — octopus, calamari, prawns, pasta, and grilled vegetables — show how Italy does it.
The weather is warming up, the days are longer, and the grill is starting to come out. In Italy, this time of year brings the same instinct — tables moved outside, something smoking on the heat, dinner that takes its time. Italian grilling has its own logic: a marinade that has been sitting overnight, a piece of fish stuffed before it goes on the heat, vegetables charred until sweet and smoky and tossed with pasta straight from the grill. These are the details that make the difference between a good dish and one you will spend years trying to recreate.
These five recipes are where to start.
Grilled Octopus
The octopus is boiled first — forty minutes at a gentle simmer — then cut into pieces, marinated for thirty minutes in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, parsley, and red onion, and finally grilled for three to four minutes per side until the outside chars and crisps while the inside stays tender. The marinade becomes the dressing for the salad of arugula, cucumber, tomato, roasted peppers, and chickpeas that goes alongside. Nothing is wasted, everything has a purpose, and the result is one of the most satisfying things you can put on a summer table.
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Paccheri with Grilled Pepper Cream and Ricotta
The peppers go directly on the grill — charred on both sides until the skin blisters and the flesh underneath becomes sweet and smoky. Then they are blended with cherry tomatoes and onion into a sauce that is bright, slightly caramelized, and completely unlike anything that comes from a can. Paccheri — wide, cylindrical pasta that holds sauce in every direction — gets tossed through it and served with quenelles of fresh ricotta on top, cold against the warm pasta. The contrast is the whole point.
Grilled Prawns
Six minutes total on a scorching hot grill — three minutes per side, no touching, no fussing. The shells turn golden and slightly crisp, the flesh inside stays sweet and juicy. The dressing is made while they cook: olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, and garlic, stirred together and brushed over the prawns the moment they come off the heat. Serve them immediately, with bread to mop up what's left on the plate. This is coastal Italian cooking at its most direct — nothing unnecessary, nothing missing.
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Grilled Lemon Calamari
Stuffed squid is a southern Italian staple, and this version makes the case for grilling over frying. The calamari are cleaned and filled with a mixture of bread, lemon zest, lemon juice, basil, and olive oil — bright, aromatic, and just moist enough to hold together. The tentacles are tucked back in and sealed with a toothpick, and the whole thing goes on a well-oiled grill for ten to twelve minutes, turning occasionally until evenly golden. Sliced at the table, it reveals the filling inside. The lemon and basil perfume the whole dish as it cooks.
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Pasta with Grilled Vegetables
Zucchini, eggplant, and peppers — sliced, grilled until marked and slightly charred, then tossed with tortiglioni and finished with grated primosale cheese that softens into the hot pasta without fully melting. The vegetables go on the grill in order of density: eggplant first, then zucchini, then peppers — the last ones scorched whole until the skin blisters and peels away, revealing the sweet flesh underneath. The dish works warm or cold, which makes it the most practical thing on this list. Make it in the morning and it will be better by dinner.
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The grill does not need to be complicated to be good
The grill does not need to be complicated to be good. A cast iron grill pan, good ingredients, and enough time — that is all it takes. The octopus needs its boil and its marinade. The calamari needs its stuffing. The vegetables need their time on the heat before they go into the pasta. None of this is difficult. All of it is worth doing.
Related: The Italian Way to Dip / Italian Vegetable Hacks That Actually Work / The Italian Aperitivo: How to Do It Right
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