S is back home after being gone for a week. I asked him to pick any dinner for me to make for him, and he picked pizza meatloaf. Appropriate, since I came up with the recipe when he was three and his own version of picky.
(Sorry about the awful picture. I can't decide whether to leave it up or take it down. As my dad would say "Well, it tastes good, but I sure wouldn't want to step in it!")
I have made this with all kinds of ground meat. Beef, pork, turkey, buffalo, and mixes of them all. Tonight I have equal parts ground chuck and pork. I have also used all sorts of vegetables. I put onions in everything, so I always have onions in my pizza meatloaf. I have used broccoli, cabbage, shredded broccoli slaw, mushrooms, various squashes, celery, whatever I have lying around.
Chopped produce, of the pizza compatible variety, about 2 cups (this time I used zucchini, yellow squash, onions, celery, and mushrooms)
3 lbs of ground meat
2 eggs
2 tablespoons diced garlic
Oregano (I use 6 drops of oregano oil, but that is an obscure ingredient. Use at least 2 T of fresh or 2 t of dried oregano)
2 tablespoons double strength tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs (C'mon, you KNOW you have stale bread. Don't be lazy!)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 bag of shredded mozzarella or 1 good sized ball of the fresh
Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 375.
In a large casserole dish (I use an oval shaped pyrex dish) arrange produce.
In a large bowl, add meat, eggs, oregano, tomato paste, salt and pepper and bread crumbs. Mix just until combined. (I use my hands. If you're not into that, use a utensil of your choice, but I can't think of one that would work as well. You can be like Alton Brown and wear latex gloves....kinky!)
Heap the meat in an oval shaped loaf above produce in casserole dish, not tapering too much at the ends. Pour the jar of tomato sauce over it. Put in oven.
After 1 hour, take out and dump cheese on top. Cook until cheese is melted and instant read thermometer reads 160 degrees F in the center, about another 45 minutes. Enjoy!
It's great over spaghetti the next day.
2 comments:
Hi Hilary. Ican't get my pictures to post on here {grrr}, but Jess says she sent them to you. My first pizza meatloaf was a success. It tastes really really good, and was a huge hit with everyone. Jess' mom even took home some leftovers! We're having it over pasta tomorrow to kill the leftovers. I 86ed the mushrooms. I just couldn't do it. But I did use zuchini, yellow squash and onions, and I ate it all up. The turkey wasn't too dry, and it was so so good.
Thanks so much for the recipe. I think I'll tackle the pulled pork next week. I've had that, so it'll be a good way to see how close I'm getting.
We had an awesome weekend, by the way. It was great to meet you and I hope my kid turns out as awesome as yours. They were amazing to hang out with.
As you'll see in the pics, I burned the cheese. But I like to say that I just kind of gave the whole meal a crunchy outer shell.
Hey, congrats! I am glad it turned out good. The cheese is tricky, as I told Jess over the phone today.
I have faith in you. The pulled pork is an even easier recipe.
And don't sweat the mushrooms. It is a very flexible recipe.
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