Skip the marinade

Sometimes it’s better to just quickly cook main ingredients over high direct heat, then flavor them with fresh seasonings

Fire is a mighty ingredient all on its own, adding an alluring smokiness to meat, seafood, cheese and vegetables. So skip the marinade: Grill your ingredients with only oil and salt, and over unrelenting direct heat for a crisp char. Then season them hot off the grill. This style of cooking takes little time and less planning — and can simplify and shake up dinnertime. For a good time grilling, heed these tips:

Prep your ingredients and get the grill super hot.

Choose something slender and sturdy (like asparagus or scallions) or lean and marbled (like skirt steak or shrimp) that can cook in less than 20 minutes. As the grill heats up, pat your ingredients dry with paper towels, then let them air-dry until you’re ready to cook. You want the grill hot, but only on one side, so that there’s a cool zone where you can move ingredients if you need to pause and regroup. This is called two-zone grilling. Make sure to clean the grates with a grill brush, then lightly grease the ingredients and the hot grates to prevent sticking and encourage browning.

Follow the flames more than the recipes.

Fire is a wild thing. Each time at the grill will be a little different, so use your senses for the best results. Grill ingredients over direct heat until the bottoms release naturally from the grate, then flip and cook until the outsides are golden and speckled with char and the insides are cooked through.

(Check doneness with a meat thermometer or slice and peek in the thickest part.) If your food could use more color, move it to a hotter area. If it flares up, move it to the safe, cool zone.

Once everything’s hot off

the grill, season enthusiastically.

Use acidic, salty, fresh or spicy seasonings that stand up to smokiness — and distract if the cooking went awry. Rest ingredients in a bold sauce so that no meat juices are wasted (and so that anything overcooked will still seem moist). Add crunch with a dressed salad, potato chips, nuts, seeds, coconut flakes or breadcrumbs, which will also conceal a lessthan-crackly crust. Create a big-flavored glaze by coating your food with butter and a condiment, like giardiniera, horseradish or hot sauce. Butter can fix most problems — in grilling and in life.

JOHNNY MILLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES PHOTOS An example of two-zone grilling, in which you have both a hot and a cool area on your grilling grate to help prevent disasters.

Grilled swordfish dressed with a corn, cilantro and chive salad.