I
NO BARBECUE?
MAKE YOUR OWN
How to use a terracotta pot as a barbecue.
Words: FABIAN CAPOMOLLA | Photography: MARK ROPERI love a good barbie, essentially
because it’s an outside activity. My
preference is for charcoal; I love
lighting it and continuing to plod
along in the garden until it comes
up to temperature – it’s all part of
the weekend ritual. At home, I use
an old Weber that I salvaged from
the side of the road. I love how
you can trace the year it was made
from the model number on the lid- mine is from 1987. Nothing beats
an afternoon in the garden, spring
lamb ribs on the barbie and footy on
the radio.
I am of Italian heritage. My
father is Calabrian and my mother is
Sicilian. Food and family have been
the cornerstone of my upbringing.
Growing your own food has only
ever been the normal thing to do. In
2014 I sold my business and took my
young family to live in Italy for 12
months. The idea was to get back to
my roots.
When I was in Italy, I had a plot
in a community garden that was some
distance from any shops, so often I
would have to pack my lunch. It was
located along the Via Francigena,
which meanders along the Serchio
river. It was the ideal spot to have a
picnic barbecue. However, carrying
a barbecue on my bike was not an
option; therefore, I had to make use
of what I had available to me in the
community garden. I managed to
conjure up something from some
wire, an old terracotta pot, and some
charcoal, which is readily available
in Italy.
MATERIALS
REQUIRED
30 cm terracotta pot
2 bricks or 3 pot feet
Small twigs (a couple of handfuls)
Box of matches
A few heat beads or pieces of charcoal
Small piece of chicken wire
Barbecue tongs
Sausages, crusty bread and light red wine
Grab the pot and place it on the bricks
or pot feet to raise it up off the ground.
This will allow air to flow through the
hole in the bottom of the pot.
Put the twigs in the pot and light them
with a match. Once the fire is going, place
the heat beads or charcoal on top and let
them heat up until they glow white.
Place the chicken wire over the top
of the pot to create a grill for your
sausages. (You can place a couple of
bricks on top of the pot to elevate the
chicken wire if the barbecue is too hot.)
Now cook your sausages. Serve the
sausages in the bread with a glass of
light red wine (or drink the wine from a
plastic cup if you want to make it more
authentically Italian).This how-to is an edited extract from
Growing Food the Italian Way by
Fabian Capomollla, published by Plum,
RRP $44.99, available now.