Thursday, February 21, 2008

Easy & Delicious

These are two things I love in a recipe. My biggest problem in the kitchen is that I don't add enough flavor. We often load up on the salt and pepper at the dinner table. Anyway, we saw a version of this recipe for meatloaf on Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello. Dave said it is the best meat loaf he's ever had - it has so much flavor! You can see the original recipe here, this is how I made it (based on ingredients I had in the house and what we like):


2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 teaspoons (about 3 cloves) chopped garlic
1 pound ground beef
2 eggs
3/4 cup ground up stuffing mix (throw the stuffing in the food process for a few secs or just chop it up)
3/4 cup ricotta
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup marinara sauce (I used jarred, but if you make your own, go with your bad self)


Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil and let cool. Mix them in with all of the indgedients, except for the marinara. Pour the marinara on top. Put it in a loaf pan (the original recipe said to oil the pan, which I did, but I doubt that it's nessecary). Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.


My only compaint about this recipe is that I couldn't scoop the oil off of the top since it has the sauce. So, you could do that in the middle of the cooking time and then add sauce if you're adamant about minimizing fat. An easier thing would be to use ground turkey, if your fam will go for it. Or, enjoy it as it is. It doesn't taste greasey.


Thanks Michael Chiarello!

3 comments:

Jen said...

Sounds yummy! I am going to have to try it.

merry said...

Can I just say that Haven never takes a bad picture. I seriously want to bite his little cheeks.

Foxy5 said...

I never make meatloaf the same way twice. I'll have to give this recipe a whirl. Thanks! :)