Irresistible little skewers | The Press

Grilled meat is not what comes to mind when we think of Italy. However, this is precisely what restaurateurs Janice Tiefenbach and Ryan Gray had in mind when they opened Gia in November 2021.

“It’s the identity of the restaurant,” says the man who also owns Elena and Nora Gray. Our inspiration is the restaurants that serve Italian grills in central Italy, Abruzzo and Tuscany, especially in the countryside. There, you go to the restaurants, they have wood ovens, they grill rabbit, Florentine steaks, the kind of dishes that you find almost everywhere in the surrounding area. »

We are here between the high peaks of the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea, a terroir transposed into the dishes, which can contain both meat and seafood. But it is above all a country of shepherds, so much so that lamb and Mutton are almost omnipresent in the cuisine of these central regions of Italy.

And who says lamb says arrosticini, small skewers served as an aperitif or during festive events. “The first time I ate arrosticini was at the De Fermo vineyard in Abruzzo,” recalls chef Janice Tiefenbach. They welcomed us with that, all the winegrowers in the region were there, there were people from everywhere. And there were like 600 arrosticini, something crazy like that! »

The tasty little skewers, enjoyed hot as soon as they are removed from the heat, are eaten by the dozen. “The charcoal is very close to the meat, so it’s ready in two or three minutes, maximum,” says the chef. It has to cook quickly because if it takes too long, you won’t get the meat to caramelize and you risk losing its softness. They are served with bread and wine, of course! » Janice suggests accompanying them with a delicious crostini with wild garlic, peas and stracciatella di bufala (see other tab).

Arrosticini are also defined by the way they are cooked, on a grill specifically intended for cooking small skewers. “Originally, the shepherds grilled them on pipes cut in two, they could easily improvise with the material they found around them,” says Janice Tiefenbach, who has visited Italy four times already. We therefore use sticks that are not too wide, placed on a small grill which is made for that. » Although arrosticini grills are quite easy to find (see the capsule), you can of course use a charcoal or gas BBQ, the idea being to cook them quickly, over very high heat.

As for the seasonings, the emphasis is on the product – we are talking about Mediterranean cuisine, after all! “In Italy, we add almost nothing, a little salt, sometimes we take branches of fresh herbs, we dip them in olive oil and we use them to brush the meat”, we learn from the chef, who was inspired by this tradition to create a simple marinade combining rosemary, parsley and olive oil. “We baste it just at the last moment of cooking,” she tells us, making sure to turn the arrosticini at the right time.

That’s not the only freedom Gia’s team took with the arrosticini, as the restaurant had fun creating other versions, depending on the season, using beef, pork, veal. or offal such as duck heart, rabbit liver or guinea fowl.

“A lot of offal is eaten in Italy, from the heart, from the liver, so we play with that a little, but we try not to overdo it because we really want to taste the product,” Janice Tiefenbach tells us, who recently shared her love of Italian cuisine in the cookbook Salad Pizza Wine. “I still allow myself to be more funky with the liver, for example putting shiso leaves around it, brushing with a marinade made with hot peppers and peaches. I use seasonal products in summer, we allow ourselves a little freedom,” she adds with a knowing smile.

Seasonal products of course come from local farms and breeders, which is perfectly in line with Italian tradition. “The philosophy of Italian cuisine is to use the good products that come from right next to you,” says the chef. Here, we are really lucky to have beautiful products around us, so for me it is more “Italian” to source locally than to import everything from Italy. We therefore use ingredients from Quebec, but with an inspiration that is truly Italian. »

Visit the Gia wine & grill website

Arrosticini grill

Finding an arrosticini grill is easier than you might think. Amazon may be a simple and affordable option, but it’s not much more expensive to find from Canadian retailers like Consiglio’s, which delivers free to Quebec. “Initially, we had our grill custom made, it was really expensive and it never worked as well as the models purchased online for a hundred dollars,” admits the owner, Ryan Gray. Plus, these are the same grills that we saw in Abruzzo! »

Visit Consiglio’s website (in English)