The Many Sides of Meatloaf
I hadn’t eaten any meatloaf in a while until a co-worker, Tom Fluharty, kindly offerred me some of his Italian-style meatloaf the other day.
Tom said he has been using the same recipe for 16 years. “But I had never actually made the exact recipe before — well this one isn’t even the exact recipe, but almost.”
Tom’ recipe is spicy with sausage and contains big hunks of sun-dried tomatoes and long strings of smoked mozzarella. It reminded of how appealing and versatile meatloaf is.
Almost everyone has their favorite version of meatloaf, and everyone seems to stick to the same version, making it again and again. But it’s a big world of flavor out there that has room for plenty of innovation. The folks at recipezaar.com recently sent me an e-mail bragging about the meatloaf recipes on the site.
They have a bunch of different versions. What would you guess? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?
Nope. They have 1,496 recipes for meatloaf on the site.
Most of these are made with ground beef, but they also have turkey, chicken, veal, bacon, and sausage meatloaves, and quite a few that use a combination of meats.
They have meatloaf with brown sugar, horseradish sauce, barbecue sauce, curry — you name it. Oh, and, yes, vegetarians can have their meatloaf, too (with lentils and oats, in one version). There are meatloaves with spinach, rye bread, cranberry glaze. The site even has several recipes for meatloaf for meatloaf haters.
My favorite title among the recipezaar recipes is Yes, Virginia! There is a Great Meatloaf. The recipe itself is very basic — a little ketchup, brown sugar and onion but nothing out of the ordinary. But the title reminds me of the inherent problem in a dish that is so versatile: It’s often bland.
I usually make a fairly plain meatloaf. I used to make it for my kids, thinking that the relative blandness of what is basically hamburger stretched with bread would appeal to them.
I was wrong. The last couple of times I made meatloaf, my kids turned up their noses at it. I still don’t know why.
So I haven’t made it in about a year. That is going to change, though. I don’t know whether I will make Tom’s recipe. I’m as bad as he is about taking a recipe on paper and fiddling around with it in the kitchen.
But I thank Tom for reminding me of the great appeal of this All-American dish.
Italian Meatloaf
This recipe appeared in The Seattle Times in 1992 in an article by John Hinterberger.
Though the recipe doesn’t specify it, I recommend chopping the sun-dried tomatoes before putting them in the meatloaf as they can be a bit too chewy when whole.
Tom made a few changes in the meatloaf he shared with me. He used Neese’s hot sausage in place of the Italian sausage because he likes it. He was short on mozzarella, so he supplemented what he said with a bit of Swiss. And because he didn’t have any red wine or tomato juice on hand, he creatively substituted a combination of ¼ cup ketchup and ¾ cup champagne. Note that this recipe calls for fresh bread crumbs, not the dry ones sold in stores. To make fresh bread crumbs, tear up a few slices of bread and process in food processor.
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
5 small garlic cloves, minced
3 cups fresh bread crumbs
1 cup chopped Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon salt
Several grindings of black pepper
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup tomato juice
½ cup dry red wine
2 cups fresh basil leaves
4 ounces sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil), drained
1 pound smoked mozzarella, thinly sliced
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine ground beef, sausage, onion, garlic, bread crumbs, parsley, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add eggs, tomato juice and wine. Mix thoroughly.
2. Lay out a large sheet of waxed paper. Spread the meatloaf mixture into a 12-by-15-inch rectangle on the paper. Arrange the basil leaves over the surface. Scatter the sun-dried tomatoes over the basil and arrange ¾ of the cheese on top.
3. Using the waxed paper as an aid and starting from one short side, roll up the meat like a jelly rol. Peel back the paper as you roll. Press on the meatloaf lightly to seal and place in a jelly-roll pan (a baking sheet with 1-inch sides) or on the bottom of a broiler pan that has been lined with foil.
4. Bake 1 hour. Place remaining slices of cheese on top and bake 10 more minutes. Serve hot or cold.
Makes 12 to 15 servings.
