Italian Meatloaf with Marinara Sauce Recipe

Not simply one other meatloaf……That is an Italian Meatloaf smothered in essentially the most unbelievable tomato marinara sauce. Cooking the meatloaf partially submerged within the sauce makes the meatloaf further tasty and additional juicy – to not point out all of the flavour from the meatloaf dripping into the sauce!

I promise I’m not exaggerating. This isn’t simply “one other meatloaf” with floor beef/mince blended along with some random Italian herbs.

Oh no. That is a lot greater than that! THIS is made within the spirit of home made Italian sausages. Have you ever ever made Italian sausages? I’ve. They style superb. They require speciality gear to floor pork shoulder, digital scales to get the precise quantity of herbs and salt, and naturally the sausage machine to pipe the sausage combination into the casings.

I don’t have all that gear in my humble kitchen. However I’ve handle to recreate the flavours on this ridiculously scrumptious Italian meatloaf!

As I alluded to above, the seasonings for this meatloaf are akin to home made Italian sausages. Nevertheless, I make my meatloaf with a mix of beef and pork, relatively than simply pork which is what Italian sausages are fabricated from. The pork provides juiciness, the meat is the principle flavour base. 🙂

The crowning glory of that is the tomato sauce. Oh my. THIS is the important thing differentiating issue on this recipe. Most meatloaves will not be made with a sauce. However there are 2 issues that make this sauce severely scrumptious:

1. I add the juices within the meatloaf pan into the sauce. Why throw out free flavour??

2. The meatloaf finishes cooking IN the sauce. Which suggests all of the juices from the meatloaf releases into the sauce AND the bottom of the meatloaf sucks up the marinara sauce flavour. Win win!

LOOK how juicy this meatloaf is! I take advantage of my secret tip to make this with bread soaked in grated onion relatively than breadcrumbs. It’s the identical approach I take advantage of for my Italian Meatballs that readers are raving about!

I do know I rambled a bit, so right here’s a fast recap of why I like this Italian meatloaf a lot and why it isn’t like the standard:

1. It really does style like it’s Italian. It tastes like a meatloaf beef model of Italian pork sausages, because of the refined mixture of beef and pork mince (floor meat), crimson bell peppers/capsicum and fennel seeds;

2. The Sauce is made further tasty by including the meatloaf pan juices into the sauce AND by cooking the meatloaf for a part of the time IN the sauce. Flavour on flavour on flavour!

3. I swear, the meatloaf is made even juicier than ordinary by cooking it partly submerged within the sauce. It certainly should suck up some liquid??

4. I additionally use my approach to soak bread in grated onion relatively than utilizing breadcrumbs. My idea for why this makes a distinction is that the bread crumbs broaden when cooked, creating little air pockets. Using grated onion additionally makes this meatloaf further tasty. This is identical approach I take advantage of to make my basic Italian Meatballs further comfortable and juicy.

Have I satisfied you but that that is value attempting? 😉

Italian Meatloaf with Marinara Sauce Recipe

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Serves: 6 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour 1 hour

Nutrition facts: 356 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups diced red bell pepper / capsicum (1 large)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups stale white bread , crusts removed, roughly diced (about 3 slices)
• 1 small onion
• 2 tbsp cream (or milk)
• 13 oz / 400 g ground pork (mince)
• 1.6lb / 800 g ground beef (mince)
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 3 tsp paprika (sweet or smoked)
• 1 3/4 tsp salt
• Pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves , minced
• 1/2 onion , finely chopped (brown, white, yellow)
• 1.4 lb / 700 g tomato passata or crushed tinned tomatoes (Note 1)
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tsp dried Mixed Italian Herbs
• 1 - 3 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Spray a 28cm/11" loaf pan, then line with parchment / baking paper, leaving overhang (Note 2).
2. Heat oil over high heat. Add capsicum, leave for 1 minute without stirring so it starts to char (burn) then stir and continue cooking to char it more (about 2 minutes in total). Remove and set aside.
3. Place bread in a large bowl. Grate onion into the bowl, using a normal box cutter (Note 3). Add cream, then use your hands to squidge the mixture together so the bread is completely soaked and starts to disintegrate.
4. Add remaining meatloaf ingredients, including capsicum. Use your hands to mix it together until JUST combined. Do not over mix otherwise it will become dense.
5. Press into the loaf pan (Note 4). Drizzle with olive oil then bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the Sauce.
6. Take the meatloaf out of the oven. Carefully lift the meatloaf out of the loaf pan (using the paper overhang) onto a work surface. Then transfer the meatloaf into the skillet with the Sauce.
7. Pour juices in the loaf pan into the skillet. Return to the oven for a further 30 to 40 minutes, or until cooked to your liking.
8. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve the meatloaf with the Sauce, garnished with parmesan if desired.
9. I like to serve this with mashed potatoes but it is also lovely with pasta.
10. Heat oil in a ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes until translucent.
11. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes on the stove, adjusting salt and pepper to taste.
12. Take it off the stove. Follow the steps above to place the meatloaf in and bake it.

Notes

1. Tomato passata is pureed tomatoes, plain, without any salt or other flavour additions. Nowadays it is readily available at supermarkets, usually in the pasta section. It costs around the same as tinned tomatoes. If you can't find it, use crushed tinned tomatoes (you can use a blender to puree it if you want, to turn it into passata!).
2. "Overhang" simply means using a bigger piece of parchment/baking paper than you need so you can lift the meatloaf out of the pan by holding the paper.
3. A box grater is the standard old school grater that you use to grate cheese. Nothing fancy!
4. If you don't have a loaf pan, shape into a loaf and place it onto a baking tray.
5. Nutrition per serving, assuming 8 servings.