Italian Style Meat Loaf

I was at the grocery store on Sunday morning, beating the rush of mad-ass-women who will all but run you over with their coupons and carts, when I ran across the most disgusting thing in the meat aisle: meatloaf mix.


Does anyone else eat meatloaf with lamb, turkey and ground beef?!  Bleh.  That does not sound good, at all.  Maybe my mom just saved me by serving it with meat--but I firmly believe that's the way it ought to be.  I'll skip the other meat forms, thanks.

Despite the bleh-factor over the multiple-meat-loaf, it did make me crave some old-school style meatloaf that mom made, but kicked up a notch. (because what good would a cooking blog be if I didn't try something new?!)  The outcome was different than mom's, but equally yummy I believe.  I'll go ahead and say it's a tad more "italian" too.

Italian Style Meat Loaf

Ingredients:


1.5 lbs ground sirloin (or beef)
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
1 egg
1.5-2 cups bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp dijon mustard
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
ketsup, to taste

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except the bread crumbs.  Mix until well combined.  Add bread crumbs and mix with hands, until completely incorporated.  The mixture should be moist, not runny and easy to form.  If not, add a tad more breadcrumbs.  If mixture is too dry, add milk, one tablespoon at at time.

In a baking pan, spray bottom of pan with spray and form loaf with the meat mixture.  Drizzle ketsup over top.  Place in oven, preheated to 350 degrees and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.   To avoid burnt bottoms, you can add 1/2 cup beef broth to bottom of the pan.