Description
Meatloaf with an Italian twist. Pork and beef combined with eggplant.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 stalks celery
- 1 large carrot
- 5 small Sicilian eggplants blanched (1.5 cups blanched and squeezed eggplant)
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 3 cups fresh breadcrumbs
- 454 grams ground pork
- 454 grams ground veal or lean ground beef
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
- Combine the celery, carrot, eggplant, and onion in a food processor and whiz together to form a rough puree.
- Make the fresh breadcrumbs by pulsing in the food processor. They don’t need to be super fine.
- Place the ground meat into a large bowl.
- Add the pureed vegetables and breadcrumbs to the meat.
- Add the egg and spices and mix the entire mixture by hand very well.
- Line two bread loaf pans with parchment paper ( or grease them with olive oil ) and fill 3/4 way with the meatloaf mixture.
- Cover with a piece of parchment paper and then tinfoil.
- Remove the parchment and tin foil after 30 minutes and continue to bake uncovered for another 30-45 minutes. The tops will be well browned.
- Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from the pans to slice.
Notes
Lean ground beef will work well as a substitute for veal but medium or regular ground beef will cause a lot of shrinkage. It will also cause too much liquid and stop the meatloaf from browning nicely.
Using freshly ground bread instead of dry breadcrumbs makes a huge difference and adds to the tenderness and juiciness of this meatloaf.