Traeger Italian Party Ribs with Smoked Olive & Calabrian Chile Sauce

I've been making ribs on my Traeger for years, but like a lot of you, I have been taken by the viral party ribs method. Instead of smoking a whole rack and slicing it at the end, you cut the ribs individually before they hit the smoker. More surface area means more seasoning, more bark and most importantly, a much faster cook time. And like the name implies, it is a hit at parties. For this batch, I decided to take things in an Italian direction. The ribs get seasoned overnight with salt, black pepper and fennel seed. If you've ever eaten a really good Italian sausage, you already know where this is going. But the real inspiration came when my buddy Daniel Hare from CR Citrus rolled into town with a jar of his smoked olives. I had previously made a sauce inspired by the Jazz Sauce at Post Alley Pizza in Seattle—a ridiculous combination of olives, Calabrian chiles, anchovies, pickled onions and garlic. Think spicy puttanesca without the tomatoes. I'd served a version of it with live-fire ribs before, but swapping in CR Citrus smoked olives took the whole idea somewhere else. The Traeger makes smoking meats easier, while the smoked olives bring another layer of oomph to the sauce. Add the fennel, Calabrian chile, anchovy and garlic and this feels like Stanley Tucci decided to reboot his Eating Italy series in Austin, TX. Yeah, this works.

Why Party Ribs?

If you haven't tried the party ribs method yet, the big difference is simple: you cut the rack into individual ribs before they go on the Traeger. That means you're exposing way more of the pork to your seasoning, heat and smoke. Instead of bark mostly living on the outside of the rack, each rib gets the full treatment. There's another benefit: speed. A traditional rack of smoked ribs can turn into an all-day affair. These Traeger party ribs cooked for about two hours unwrapped and another hour wrapped. Three-ish hours for smoked ribs? I'm listening.

The Italian Rib Rub

There are plenty of barbecue rubs out there loaded with brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and whatever else you can fit into the spice cabinet. We're not doing that. For these Italian party ribs, I went simple: salt, whole black peppercorn and fennel seed. Fennel and pork are already best friends. It's one of the flavors that gives Italian sausage its signature taste, and here it takes the ribs in a completely different direction from your typical barbecue rub. I like to season the ribs the night before and let them hang out uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. The salt gets a head start seasoning the meat, and the next day they're ready to go straight onto the Traeger.

The Smoked Olive & Calabrian Chile Sauce

Now for the part that really makes this recipe different. The inspiration for this sauce comes from Post Alley Pizza in Seattle. Their Jazz Sauce got me thinking about the combination of olives, Calabrian chiles, anchovies and garlic with pork. I made my own version for my Live Fire Grilled Ribs, using more or less equal parts Calabrian chile, pickled onion, Castelvetrano olives and anchovies, along with roasted garlic and a little honey or agave to balance everything out. This time I had CR Citrus smoked olives, and that's where things got interesting. Olives already bring salt, fat and a ton of savory flavor to the party. Smoking them adds another dimension altogether. When you blitz them with funky anchovies, spicy Calabrian chiles, pickled onion and roasted garlic, you get something that lives somewhere between a relish, salsa and an Italian condiment. And because the olives are already smoked, that flavor echoes what we are doing on the Traeger. I could put this stuff on a sandwich tomorrow. Assuming there's any left.

Traeger Italian Party Ribs Recipe

Ingredients

For the party ribs

• 1 3lb rack Baby Back pork ribs
• Coarse kosher salt
• Whole black peppercorns
• Fennel seeds

For the Smoked Olive & Calabrian Chile Sauce

• CR Citrus smoked olives
• Calabrian chiles
• Pickled onion
• Anchovies
• Roasted garlic
• Honey or agave, to taste

For the sauce, use more or less equal parts smoked olives, Calabrian chiles, pickled onion and anchovies, following the same basic proportions as my original Live Fire rib sauce. Add roasted garlic and honey or agave to taste. Aim for ⅓ cup per ingredient, and you might have a little extra for a sandwich the next day. This isn't pastry. Taste the sauce and make adjustments. You want salty, spicy, funky, smoky and just enough sweetness to bring everybody together.

Step 1: Cut and Season the Party Ribs

Remove the membrane from the back of the rack if it hasn't already been removed. Now instead of throwing the whole rack on the Traeger, slice between each bone to separate the rack into individual ribs. Coarsely grind the black peppercorns and fennel seeds and combine them with the kosher salt. Season the ribs generously on all sides. Place them on a sheet pan or wire rack and refrigerate overnight.

Step 2: Smoke the Party Ribs on the Traeger

Preheat your Traeger to 260°F. Place the party ribs directly on the grill grates with a little space between each rib. That's the whole point here—we want heat and smoke getting to as much surface area as possible. Smoke the ribs for approximately 2 hours. You're looking for the exterior to develop good color and bark before moving on to the next stage.

Step 3: Wrap the Ribs

After about two hours, remove the ribs from the Traeger and wrap them tightly in foil. Return the wrapped ribs to the Traeger, increase the temperature and cook for approximately 1 additional hour, or until tender. And remember: we're cooking meat, not setting a timer for a parking meter. If your ribs need a little longer, give them a little longer. You want them tender and juicy with meat that pulls easily from the bone, but we're not trying to cook them until they disintegrate. Remove the ribs from the Traeger and let them rest while still wrapped.

Step 4: Make the Smoked Olive Sauce

Add the CR Citrus smoked olives, Calabrian chiles, pickled onion, anchovies and roasted garlic to a food processor. Pulse until everything is finely chopped and comes together into a coarse sauce. Don't puree the life out of it. You want some texture. Taste and add honey or agave as needed. There's a lot going on here—salt from the olives and anchovies, heat from the Calabrian chiles, acid from the pickled onion, sweetness from the honey and smoke from the olives. Keep tasting until everything clicks.

Step 5: Serve

Unwrap those rested party ribs and pile them onto a platter. Serve the Smoked Olive & Calabrian Chile Sauce alongside the ribs and let everybody go to work. No sticky barbecue glaze required. You've got smoky pork seasoned with fennel and black pepper and this salty, spicy, funky smoked olive sauce cutting through all that richness. It's barbecue. It's Italian-ish. It's party ribs. And apparently Stanley Tucci lives in Austin now.

A Few Tips for Traeger Party Ribs

Cut the ribs before seasoning. That's how you take advantage of all that extra surface area. Get the rub onto every side of every rib. Season them overnight. You're basically dry-brining the pork while giving the fennel and black pepper time to do their thing. Don't obsess over cook times. My party ribs took roughly three hours total, but ribs vary in size and smokers vary too. Cook for tenderness, not just the clock. Don't skip the smoked olives. Regular Castelvetrano olives work—that's where my original version of this sauce started—but the CR Citrus smoked olives are what make this version of the recipe what it is. Make extra sauce. Seriously. Leftover smoked olive and Calabrian chile sauce has sandwich written all over it.  

The best food in Austin, Texas, this September includes a tableside martini service that might make you rethink your James Bond order, a new player in Austin’s white-tablecloth Mexican game, a rotisserie chicken that might give Costco a run for its money and a fresh look at an old Austin standby.

School has started, ACL is around the corner and the calendar is getting booked. But here are four Austin restaurants worth penciling in this September.

Hestia’s Tableside Martini

When I went to Hestia’s Lone Star Dinner Series collaboration with InterStellar BBQ, I was expecting a lot of smoke, fire and meat magic. What I wasn’t expecting was some of the classiest tableside antics I’ve seen in years.

On select nights, Hestia offers a tableside martini service. A bartender rolls a cart of assorted goodies to your table, where you can order a martini from 21 different options. I was perplexed. And then I got tipsy.

In an era of ordering your whole dinner at the counter—and a cocktail culture filled with egg-white washes and bespoke distillers that sound more like indie rock bands—the Hestia martini cart feels refreshingly old-school. It’s as classy as Ron Burgundy in San Diego...but in downtown Austin.

Pro tip: Check with Hestia to see which nights the tableside martini service is available.

Alteño

Hotel restaurants used to be...not so nice (Borat accent), but those days are long gone. Celebrity chefs front them—just ask Las Vegas. Here’s another twist: really good Mexican food from Denver.

Before I went to Alteño, I would have been skeptical about the idea of a Mexican restaurant from Denver coming to Austin. But then again, I had never eaten at Chef Johnny Curiel’s restaurants. The chef has earned multiple James Beard Award finalist recognitions, one of his restaurants earned a Michelin star, and he’s opening another restaurant in Charleston. Gordon Ramsay who?

But it’s the food that really wowed me. You don’t need to do much to Mexican food; it’s already awesome. Honor what works in the recipes, source carefully and upgrade the plate to match the surroundings.

Alteño is sleek, but it’s also thoughtful. There’s a deep wine list featuring small producers from Mexico—including a winery where I got married 18 years ago—and dishes like halibut cooked in a Veracruz-style sauce that reflects the Mediterranean influences found in that cuisine. It was served with what someone at the restaurant called “Robuchon rice,” which is basically code for using copious amounts of butter, much like Joël Robuchon famously did with mashed potatoes.

By the way, that’s also a tip to go to Joël Robuchon. But only after you go to Alteño first. Splurge-worthy indeed.

Austin Rotisserie

Rotisserie chicken is criminally underrated. Sure, it can be great at supermarkets, but those birds are subject to timing. Get there too late and you’re staring at a chicken that was literally picked over and left behind—and somehow it’s still pretty good.

Austin Rotisserie’s birds don’t suffer that fate. The chicken you want is pulled right off the rotisserie and carved to order, and I’d recommend getting at least a half bird. Either way, whole or half, you get potatoes cooked in the drippings of the roasting chickens. I’ll allow you to moan and groan now.

The sauces are addictive, especially the spicy green one, but they’re also almost unnecessary. This is the essence of pure chicken deliciousness, and it is uncanny how good something this straightforward can taste. And dare I say dealing with parking at Fareground is a teensy bit easier than Costco? Like...a little?

It’s worth it. Heck, I might have found my Thanksgiving solution.

Matt’s El Rancho

Yes, it took me eleven years to go to Matt’s El Rancho. And it’s true: I’m not a big Tex-Mex guy. I’m probably not the first transplant to call queso overrated, but I accept that it is part of the culinary tradition here. And when someone invites me, I graciously oblige.

Matt’s El Rancho was slammed like Austin-Bergstrom during SXSW. The buzz is intoxicating, and so are the margaritas—especially when all I’d had was a smoothie for breakfast. Thanks to some expert ordering from Rosie Newberry of Studio 512, I got a run through Matt’s greatest hits: margaritas, queso and the Asadero tacos.

The latter feature tender steak seared with strips of poblano peppers, onions and cheese. There’s a choice between corn and flour tortillas, but pros get flour here. As for the queso? It was as gluttonous as it should be and lived up to the hype.

But I’ll probably wait another eleven years to do it again.

Last Bite

Austin’s food scene keeps changing, and somehow that makes the older places stand out even more. This month took me from a Michelin-starred chef and downtown martini cart to rotisserie chicken and one of Austin’s most famous Tex-Mex institutions. New and old can coexist pretty damn well here.

Whether you crave awards or nostalgia, a cold drink and a laid-back attitude remain key. That might be a little Matthew McConaughey slipping out, but hey, I’ve lived here for eleven years now.

I even tried the queso.

Pro tip: Save room for ACL in October.