Arrosticini (Italian Grilled Lamb Skewers)

Abruzzo is a mountainous region east of Rome, and arrosticini (ah-rosti-chee-knee) are perhaps its most beloved dish. There’s even an annual food festival called Arrostiland dedicated entirely to this one dish. To make them, people thread small cubes of lamb onto skewers and cook them over smoldering embers until the outside has a delicate crunch and the inside is juicy and just barely pink. That’s it. Get it right, and they might be the most satisfying thing you eat all summer.

I experimented with this recipe quite a bit before landing here. My first instinct was to marinate the lamb, to add herbs and garlic and lemon, but the magic of this dish is its simplicity. Traditionally, the meat is seasoned only with salt, so that’s what I did as well. However, I added rosemary-garlic oil for drizzling at the end, plus a grilled lemon to squeeze over just before serving. Both of those additions feel fully in the spirit of the dish while adding a small, entirely optional flourish.

The key to making arrosticini at home is to really master the grill. Traditionally grilled on a special narrow grill called a fornacella, which is not unlike a yakitori-style tabletop grill, you can make them perfectly well on either a charcoal or gas grill. No grill at all? A cast-iron grill pan over high heat will give you good color, though you’ll miss some of that smoky flavor.

In restaurants in Abruzzo, servers often deliver arrosticini to the table handles-up in a ceramic pitcher. The ceramic helps keep them warm, and I can attest that wandering around a barbecue with a pitcher of ready-to-eat lamb skewers will make you super popular. 

Key Ingredients

• Boneless lamb: You can use any boneless cut of lamb you like to make arrosticini, but I think leg and shoulder are the most typical and cost-effective. The leg is leaner, and the shoulder has more marbling. I love using a mix of both to get the best of both worlds. Whichever you use, cut the meat into uniform 3/4-inch cubes so everything cooks evenly.
• Salt: The only seasoning the lamb gets before the grill is salt, so the flavor of the lamb is the star.
• Lemon is optional, but I like to halve one and grill it, cut-side down, until charred and softened, to squeeze over the finished skewers. Grilling the lemon caramelizes its sugars and mellows its acidity, making it more complex. It’s not traditional, but I think it adds a lot!

For the Rosemary-Garlic Oil (optional) 

• Extra virgin olive oil: Use a great one here, since it won’t be cooked at high heat. You’re just warming it gently to coax out the aromatics. I’m partial to the peppery, vegetal quality of this Sicilian olive oil.
• Fresh rosemary is such an excellent pairing with lamb. It infuses the oil with a woodsy note. If you, like I do, have a hedge of rosemary taking over your yard, it’s nice to plate the skewers on top of some fresh sprigs, too!
• Garlic: Just one clove, lightly crushed, infuses the oil with mellow garlic flavor. 

How to Make Arrosticini

• Get ready. Submerge about 30 eight-inch bamboo skewers in water and let them soak for 30 minutes. Soaking helps prevent scorching over the coals.) If you’re using a charcoal grill, get a chimney of charcoal going now.
• Prepare the lamb. Pat 2 pounds of boneless leg of lamb, lamb shoulder, or a mix of both dry with paper towels. Cut the meat into uniform 3/4-inch cubes. Thread the cubes tightly onto the soaked skewers, packing them closely together so they press against each other; leave 3 to 4 inches of bare skewer at one end to act as a handle. Season the threaded skewers lightly with kosher salt.
• Make the Rosemary-Garlic Oil (optional). In a small saucepan over low heat, combine 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, and 1 lightly crushed garlic clove. Warm gently for 3 to 5 minutes, until the oil is fragrant. Do not let the garlic brown. Remove from heat and set aside to continue infusing while you grill.
• Set up your grill. For a gas grill, heat only the rear burner to medium-high, about 400°F, and brush the grates clean. Keeping one burner off means you can lay the skewers perpendicular to the grates with the handles extending over the cool zone — you’ll be able to flip them without burning your hands. For a charcoal kettle-style grill, bank the glowing coals to one side, or arrange them in a strip roughly as wide as the lamb on the skewers. You can use two rows of bricks to contain them. What you’re after are coals with a layer of ash, glowing gold, not an active flame. If you need to pep up the coals, fan them gently.
• Grill the arrosticini. Arrange the skewers perpendicular to the grill grates, with the handles extending away from the heat. Grill, using the exposed handles to turn the skewers every 1 to 2 minutes, rotating regularly, until the lamb is browned all over and still juicy in the center, 6 to 8 minutes total for medium. While the skewers cook, halve the lemon and place it cut-side down on the periphery of the coals. Grill until softened and nicely charred.
• Finish and serve. Transfer the skewers to a serving platter. Stick the tines of a fork into the cut side of the grilled lemon half and squeeze the juice over the skewers. Drizzle generously with the infused rosemary oil. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and serve immediately.

How To Cut Perfect Lamb Cubes

If you visit Abruzzo and a restaurant that specializes in arrosticini, you will be amazed at how uniform the cubes of lamb on the skewers are. It’s not only the skill of legendary chefs, but it’s also that they’ve got a specific tool to help!

Butchers use a cubo, a cutting cube designed specifically for making arrosticini. It’s essentially a tower that they layer boneless lamb cuts into. Once full, they add the lid. It has rows of evenly spaced holes, and they insert a skewer into each one. Then, they use a sharp knife to slice through the vertical cut guide lines on each side of the cube. Open it up and bang: perfectly symmetrical kebabs engineered to cook evenly, and no need to thread each piece on individually! 

If you don’t want to buy a cubo, a sharp knife and a little patience do the job perfectly well. 

Arrosticini Tips

• Cut small, uniform cubes. The lamb pieces for arrosticini really are on the small side. I think 3/4 inch cubes are best, which is generally smaller than the 1 to 1 1/2 inch cubes more typical for lamb shish kabobs. Uniformity is what makes it possible to cook all the skewers evenly in the same window of time. 
• Thread the skewers tightly. Pack the cubes against each other so there’s almost no space between them. This keeps the meat from drying out and helps the pieces stay on the skewer when you flip.
• Cook over embers, not flames: This is the single most important technique for arrosticini. The coals should be thoroughly ashed over before you add the lamb. If your charcoal or your grill is too hot, the fat on the lamb liquefies quickly, it will drip onto the coals and cause flare-ups, which can make the meat dry and give it an acrid flavor. You want smoldering coals covered in ash and radiating steady heat, or medium heat if you’re using a gas grill. 
• Need to pep up the coals? Fan them. Street vendors in Italy often use a hair dryer! 
• Flip in batches. Once you’re comfortable, flip 3 or 4 skewers at a time by grabbing the handles together, like a fan. It’s faster than doing them one by one. This is also why it’s essential to bank the coals to leave the skewer “handles” in a cool zone. 
• Don’t walk away. Arrosticini cook fast! Deputize someone to watch and turn them if you need to walk away. 
• Eat them immediately. Arrosticini are at their very best the moment they come off the grill, especially if they’ve got a little bit of crunch on the exterior that gives way to juicy meat. To eat them, pick up a skewer by the bare handle end. Bite the meat the way a tango dancer bites the stem of a rose, then pull the skewer away to the side.

What to Serve With Arrosticini

• Grilled vegetables: Arrosticini are traditionally part of la grigliata abruzzese, the Abruzzo mixed grill, so adding some veg is a natural fit. Dress them with extra virgin olive oil and more of that grilled lemon juice. Grilled zucchini, or eggplant, on their own are great, and a vegetable medley would be perfect.
• Peperonata: A marinated salad of sweet and tangy peppers is a great counterpart to the richness of the lamb. 
• Grilled bread is non-negotiable. Thick slices of crusty Italian bread, grilled directly over the coals until toasted and a little charred at the edges, are what you drag through the rosemary oil and lemon juices left on the platter.
• To drink: An Aperol Spritz is bittersweet and lightly fizzy, a great partner for the richness of the lamb, especially if you’re the one standing over the hot grill! A Negroni is good, too, but it’s a more spirit-forward drink. Personally, I prefer the lighter (and lower-proof) spritz for a barbecue. If you’d rather have wine, go with a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. It’s a rustic, medium-bodied red from the same region as this dish and a natural pairing for it. 
• For dessert: Keep dessert light and bright. Fresh, sweet melon salad with a digestif of icy chilled limoncello, a little granita, or a Sicilian lemon pudding with summer berries would be exactly right.