Kyle's Burgers: These aren't exactly Italian, but all my Italian in-laws, even those who normally recoil from Svizzere, as hamburgers are known in Italy, ask for more of these. To make 8 burgers, which in my experience will feed 4-6:
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds (900 g) not-too-lean ground beef (too lean makes for a dry burger)
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup finely minced parsely
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon lemon-herb mix (bought in the US)
- 8 slices cheese -- either prewrapped packaged or (preferably) hand-cut Fontina
- Salt
- A couple of large sprigs of rosemary
Preparation:
Combine all the ingredients except the cheese and the rosemary and mix well; divide the mixture into 8 patties, pressing them flat between your palms. Since they will contract and thicken as they cook, you'll want them at the most 2/3 of an inch (1 1/2 cm) thick.
Grill the burgers over hot coals, seasoning them with a little salt after you flip them -- exactly how long you cook them will depend upon your taste, though I prefer to cook ground beef medium (no blood) for safety's sake. At some point during the cooking add the rosemary sprigs to the fire to add a smoky rosemary taste to the meat, and when the burgers are just shy of being done lay the slices of cheese over them. Serve them on toasted buns, with a good dry Lambrusco.
Variations:
1) Replace some of the ground beef with ground pork or crumbled sausage meat.
2) This takes more time: Make 16 patties, rather than 8. Put a slice of cheese on 8 of them and cover them with the other 8, tamping down around the edges to seal in the cheese. You have to be careful flipping them (or use a folding grate with a long handle of the sort people also use for fish), but the result is quite good.
Yield: 4-6 servings burgers.
Grill the burgers over hot coals, seasoning them with a little salt after you flip them -- exactly how long you cook them will depend upon your taste, though I prefer to cook ground beef medium (no blood) for safety's sake. At some point during the cooking add the rosemary sprigs to the fire to add a smoky rosemary taste to the meat, and when the burgers are just shy of being done lay the slices of cheese over them. Serve them on toasted buns, with a good dry Lambrusco.
Variations:
1) Replace some of the ground beef with ground pork or crumbled sausage meat.
2) This takes more time: Make 16 patties, rather than 8. Put a slice of cheese on 8 of them and cover them with the other 8, tamping down around the edges to seal in the cheese. You have to be careful flipping them (or use a folding grate with a long handle of the sort people also use for fish), but the result is quite good.
Yield: 4-6 servings burgers.
