Chef John’s Meatball-Inspired Meatloaf

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Description

The main point of this Italian meatball-inspired meatloaf is to show you what happens when you make meatloaf like your grandparents did. During the Great Depression, this type of dish was a popular strategy for stretching what little meat you had into as filling a meal as possible.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 onion, diced
  • salt to taste
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 ½ cups very dry white bread crumbs
  • 1 ½ cups milk
  • 2 pounds ground chuck
  • ½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
  • 3 cups tomato sauce, or to taste

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
  2. Heat olive oil and butter together in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion with a pinch of salt in hot oil and butter until onion is golden brown and soft
  3. 5 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant
  4. about 30 seconds. Remove skillet from heat and cool onion mixture to room temperature.
  5. Place bread crumbs in a large bowl. Add milk and stir with a fork until combined. Let sit until all of the milk is absorbed into the breadcrumbs
  6. 15 to 20 minutes.
  7. Combine ground chuck
  8. cooled onion mixture
  9. parsley
  10. Parmesan cheese
  11. eggs
  12. 2 teaspoons salt
  13. black pepper
  14. and cayenne pepper in a bowl. Grab a handful of breadcrumbs and squeeze very gently to remove excess milk. Repeat with remaining breadcrumbs
  15. transfer breadcrumbs to ground chuck mixture
  16. and discard excess milk. Stir ground chuck mixture until evenly combined.
  17. Turn chuck mixture out into prepared baking dish
  18. and shape meat into a 3x4x10-inch meatloaf. Pour tomato sauce over the loaf and into the bottom of the dish.
  19. Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center
  20. about 1 hour 10 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Let meatloaf rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 1 hr 15 mins

Total Time: 2 hrs

Servings: 10

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