Italian Meatloaf
By: La Petite Chef
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 5:31am

Ingredients




2 pounds beef chuck
1 pound Spicy Italian Sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups fresh bread crumbs
1 cup chopped Italian parsley
2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
Salt-n-pep t.t.

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup tomato juice
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 cups fresh basil leaves
4 ounces sun-dried tomatoes, or fresh tomatoes
1 pound fresh mozzarella

Preparation

1 Preheat oven to 375 F 2 Combine the ground beef, sausage, onion, garlic, bread crumbs, parsley, Italian seasonings, and salt and pep in a large bowl. Add eggs, tomato juice, and wine and mix thoroughly. 3 Lay out 1 large sheet of waxed paper or parchment paper. Spread the meat loaf mixture out in a 15×12 inch rectangle on the waxed paper. Arrange the basil leaves over the surface. Scatter the tomatoes over the basil and arrange 3/4 of the mozz. on top. 4 Using the waxed paper as aid and starting from one short side, roll up the meat likes it’s a jelly roll. Peel back the paper as you roll. Place seam side down on a back sheet lined with aluminum foil. 5 Bake 1 hour. Place the remaining smoked mozz. over the top of the loaf and back until the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 10 minutes more. 6 Serve the meat loaf hot with fresh tomato sauce, or refrigerate until cold and cut into slices like a pate.

About


I decided to make some Italian Meatloaf since I had so much sausage in my freezer still. The recipe is from one of my Mom’s old cookbooks but I always alter it to be very spicy and never really use measuring cups… So things are eyeballed.
The recipe calls for a total of 3 LB of meat for one “loaf” but it’s much easier and more practical to split them into 2 so you can easily freeze or save one. KEY things to remember are using fresh mozzarella… not Polly-O which can barely be called cheese… no offence. ALSO, Fresh tomatoes and basil are extremely important!
The recipe calls for fresh breadcrumbs, but for this one I just threw in a ton of Italian breadcrumbs from the canister, and broke up 3 slices of bread.
Served with fresh Marinara sauce, we all enjoyed it SOOO much and sent them home with leftovers and still have 2/3 a loaf left for us! Larissa brought over a nice salad with even MORE fresh mozz. balls (all four of us have too much Italian blood in us there’s NEVER too much cheese!) We also just made an instant box of garlic mashed potatoes to save time and energy and they turned out superb!

Comments:
sevgi

Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made it the other night and it was delicious!
Tiffany Larsen

This is definitely going on the menu at my house. Thanks for the recipe.