I usually don't use a recipe for my meatloaf. I make it the way my mom taught me: using ground beef, onion soup mix, breadcrumbs, eggs, some extra onion (and maybe a few other veggies), and then topping with a generous quantity of ketchup. It's delicious!

I don't feel like this meatloaf quite stands up to my mom's, but it is very good. The cheese and tomato sauce is nice with it. It has just enough heat to be interesting. And the basil brings it home. Using a mix of beef and sausage means it's well-seasoned. And the saltine panade does make it very tender. (Personally, I like my meatloaf to have a slightly firmer texture, but that's just personal preference.)

I used extra-lean ground beef and turkey sausage for my meatloaf in order to try to make it a little lower fat and healthier. I also scaled back the Parmesan and oil a bit and swapped out the whole milk for 1% and the fontina for light mozzarella. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out and it certainly made it a lot less greasy! That said, if you're not counting calories, feel free to try it with fattier beef and pork sausage, just be aware that you will probably have to try to spoon some of the excess fat off the surface of the sauce after it comes out of the oven. This step was included in the original recipe, but I was able to omit it since the leaner meats that I used didn't release very much fat.

Italian Meatloaf

Adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2020

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 5 coves garlic, sliced thin
• 1 (828mL) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (440mL) can tomato sauce
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Meatloaf

• 32 square saltines
• 3/4 c. milk
• 2 large eggs
• 450g extra-lean (95% lean) ground beef
• 450g turkey sausage, casings removed
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. granulated garlic
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 120g mozzarella, grated
• 3 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil

Directions

Sauce

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add garlic and cook until just beginning to brown (~1 minute).
3. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and pepper flakes and bring to a simmer.
4. Cook, uncovered, for ~5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and set aside.

Meatloaf

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and spray a 23x33cm (9"x13") baking dish with baking spray.
2. Crush saltines into crumbs.
3. Combine saltine crumbs, milk, and eggs and let sit for 5 minutes.
4. Whisk to form a smooth paste.
5. Add beef, sausage, Parmesan, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and pepper flakes and mix thoroughly (preferably with your hands).
6. Transfer beef mixture to prepared baking dish and shape into a rectangle ~13-14cm wide and 23-24cm long.
7. Pour sauce over the meatloaf.
8. Cover with aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet.
9. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 60-75 minutes (meatloaf should register 70°C (160°F) when done.
10. Remove foil and top with mozzarella.
11. Heat broiler and broil meatloaf until cheese is melted (~2 minutes).
12. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes.