Recipe of the Edition: Italian Meatloaf
The Recipe
Since this quarter’s subject it Italy, let’s stick with something from that temple of culinary excellence. How about an Italian version of meatloaf? I recently created this concoction using the following ingredients:
Ingredients:
Two pounds of ground turkey
Sliced and diced fresh mushrooms, 3 cups
Diced onions, one cup
One grated carrot
Two cups of some pasta that will catch sauce (farfalle, gigli, rotini, Fusilli, etc)
Italian seasoning to taste (2 tablespoons ?)
One teaspoon of oregano
One teaspoon of basil
Dried toasted onions to taste (2 tablespoons)
3 cloves diced garlic
One cup of bread crumbs
Half a cup of some type of vodka sauce (or perhaps a full cup)
Half a cup of sun-dried tomatoes from a jar (with tomato flavored oil)
One cup of Trader Joes refrigerated Bruschetta sauce (or you can make your own)
Olive oil
One cup of grated Italian cheese (parmesan, asiago, fontina or provolone, or a blend of those)
Self and pepper to taste
Directions
After assembling the above, put the mushrooms, carrots and onions in a large fry pan or wok and sauté over medium/low heat using olive oil. Take the sun-dried tomatoes from the jar with copious amounts of the tomato infused oil, dice, and add to the sautéed veggies.
While sautéing above veggies, mixed the two pounds of ground turkey with the three eggs, all the spices above, and the bread crumbs. Slowly meld the turkey by hand until thoroughly mixed. Set aside.
Returning to the veggies, add the garlic, and mix, blending it in with the veggies for at least five minutes. Then add the Bruschetta and the vodka sauce. Thoroughly mix with other ingredients and let this brew macerate on simmer for at least 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in another pot, boil salted water and cook the hard pasta. You may want to put in a tablespoon of olive oil in the water before boiling. Don’t overcook the pasta! Once this is done, drain the pasta in a colander and set aside. You may want to retain some of the pasta water for later, in case the meatloaf mixture needs some additional moisture. Keep occasionally damping the pasta so it does not stick together.
Now take the mixed turkey and add it to the wok with the veggies. Mix the concoction completely so that the veggies and the turkey are completely integrated. This may take awhile!
Once that’s done, add the pasta and again thoroughly blend with the mixture. After this, add the cup of cheese and also blend thoroughly.
The resulting mixture should have plenty of dampness but not be soaking! If it appears too dry for baking, add some of the retained pasta water. If it appears too wet, add some cornstarch to absorb some of the moisture.
Baking
Once it reaches the desired consistency, spoon the mixture into a baking dish in an even fashion, and then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Make sure the internal temperature of the mix is at least 147 degrees, but do not overcook. When done, you may sprinkle some of the grated cheese on top of the meatloaf in an even manner, and return to oven it melts, usually less than two minutes. Remove meatloaf from oven and let it stand at least 5 minutes before serving. You may want to sprinkle the finished meatloaf with some balsamic vinegar for taste enhancement once removing from oven, but this is only an option. Enjoy!