Abbacchio a Scottadito

Scottadito means 'burn your fingers,' and this is not poetry. It is instruction. These lamb chops come off the grill so hot that waiting for them to cool would be an insult to the cook, to the lamb, and to Rome itself. You pick them up by the exposed bone. You bite into meat that is still almost too hot to eat. You burn your fingers. This is correct.

The Romans understand something about lamb that other cooks forget: young lamb needs almost nothing. Salt. Heat. Perhaps rosemary if you are feeling generous. What you keep out is as significant as what you put in. There is no marinade here, no elaborate spice rub, no sauce. The lamb tastes like lamb, like smoke, like the rosemary that grows wild on Roman hillsides.

This is Easter food in Rome, when the abbacchio, the milk-fed lamb of Lazio, is at its most tender. But Romans grill these chops whenever the weather permits and often when it does not. The preparation takes minutes. The eating takes less.