Italian Meatloaf

 20 June 2022

Recipe from Cook's Country, February 2020

Meatloaf is comfort food. But this meatloaf recipe is different from any other I've tried. The introduction to the recipe describes it as a recipe for meatballs and marinara sauce, but the meat is shaped and cooked as a loaf. We like meat balls and marinara so it stands to reason that a meatloaf made with the same ingredients would be good, too.

The sauce was made by first cooking sliced garlic in olive oil. Canned tomato sauce, canned crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and salt were added and the mixture was simmered for about 5 minutes then set aside. For the meatloaf, a panade was made using crushed saltine crackers, milk, and eggs. This was seasoned with garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Ground beef, mild Italian sausage, and grated Parmesan cheese were mixed into the panade by hand. The mixture was transferred to an oiled 13x9-inch baking dish and shaped into a 9x5-inch loaf. The sauce was poured over the meat loaf, the pan was covered tightly with aluminum foil, and baked for an hour. Grated gruyere cheese (the recipe specified fontina) was sprinkled on the loaf and placed under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese. It was sliced and served after a 15-minute rest with some defatted sauce on the side. Total preparation time was about 2½ hours.

The meatloaf was straightforward to make, much like other meatloafs. The sauce was also easy to make so it didn't add too much additional work. The substitution of gruyere for fontina worked out okay. The Italian meatloaf was okay to eat, too, having a good tender texture and a lot of flavor. It worked well as a leftover and froze well, too. However, I don't anticipate making it again. Meatloaf is comfort food hearkening to meatloafs from our childhood. This version is just too different from those in our memories to be comforting.