Meatloaf with a bit of lemon in it

Please add your own meatloaf recipes


I know there is an old meat loaf thread, but I can't immediately find the one I'm looking for, probably not tagged yet..


So, today I had a pound and a half of ground beef and briefly considered meat balls, making hamburger patties, or making yet more burritos to freeze.

I decided on meatloaf and to look up recipes, somewhat rare for me in that I tend to make meatloaf based on what is at hand and it usually comes out delicious no matter what I do.

So I landed on an old cookbook in my closet, Nika Hazelton's The Regional Italian Kitchen. It's one of those hard back books made with good paper, and in this case, really nice ink drawings as illustrations, circa 1978... and decided to
follow what Teresa had prescribed:

Teresa's Meat Loaf
il polpettone di Teresa

1/4 cup dried mushrooms in warm water (I used some aged dried procini, figure fresh mushrooms would also work)
2 slices of white bread with crusts trimmed off (I used sourdough rye and didn't cut the crusts)
1/3 cup of milk (I had half and half, I used half and half)
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1/4 pound italian salami, ground
(I used 1.5 pounds ground beef)
1 medium sized onion, minced (diced, in my case)
2 garlic cloves, mashed (3 for me)
1/2 cup minced parsley (I just happened to have fresh parsley at hand)
1 tsp dried oregano (I have a vast amount of dried mexican oregano at the ready)
grated rind of 1 lemon (part of the lemon going to pot, cut that off)
2 eggs (hah, I forgot the eggs, went to add them, didn't see them on the list, and skipped. No harm done, as it turns out)
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (my parmigiano is too hard and dry to grate, can only be put in soup. Used ordinary monterey jack)
1/8 tsp tabasco (is she kidding? I added three tablespoons medium enchilada sauce)
salt (skipped that)
freshly ground pepper (skipped that this time)
1 lemon, cut in slices, did that

Soak mushrooms in warm water to cover for 15 minutes. Drain and chop. Combine mushrooms and all other ingredients except sliced lemon. Mix well with a spoon and then with your hands (I skipped the spoon part.) Place the mixture in a loaf pan, 9 x 5 x 2 3/4 inches (I didn't measure). Top with the lemon slices. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated moderate oven (350) for 1 hour; uncover and bake for 15 more minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Yes, it worked. Tasty, sort of unusual, but in a good way.