Meatloaf, with a side of glamour.

The proud but humble budget-stretcher gets the red carpet treatment.

The best meatloaf I have ever seen was twenty years ago in Balducci’s, New York’s wonderful food store. I was there for a day to do cooking demonstrations and hand out tastings for my latest cookbook, Very Simple Food (which makes it sometime around 2003).

As I tossed red and yellow peppers with capers and olive oil on a gas burner on a card table, then shredded wonderfully fresh mozzarella over the top, I was always distracted by this monumental meatloaf, lying on a huge wooden board in the deli section. It was topped with scarlet baubles of cherry tomatoes that had baked and blackened on top, oozing with their own fruity juices. 

So of course I came home and worked on a recipe and put it in my next cookbook as New York Meatloaf. Because the cook-dems you do for one cookbook tour should always inspire the recipes for the next book, we all know that.

This week’s recipe is based on that wonderful money-saving, feed-the-people meatloaf, and it’s bloody delicious; the meatiness lightened with red capsicum (stealth veg) cut into fine dice so they cook in the same time.

You can furtively push in any vegetables you like - just soften them in olive oil first, so that everything is the same comforting texture.

But it’s the baked tomato topping that really is genius, because it brings colour, acidity, and excitement to – well – meatloaf.

Some terrible things have happened in the name of meatloaf; the reigning prince of budget cookery - most of which have to do with bulking it up with breakfast cereal such as corn flakes. My preference is to use left-over stale bread, soaked in milk, squeezed out, chopped and mixed through the meat. It lightens the weight of the meat, makes it go further, and makes me feel like an Italian nonna.

(Feel free to add more bread than I call for, to the recipe below - meatloaf is the stretchy-pants of gastronomy, and will expand to fit.)

You don’t really need a sauce as well, but if you have left-over tomatoes that won’t fit on top of the meatloaf, add the cooking juices that the finished meatloaf will be swimming in, drained through a sieve. Add chilli, honey, anything you like at this point.

It’s all about making do with what you have, which is pretty much what meatloaf is all about.

The before, so you can see how I pack the tomatoes on top.

The after, obviously.

MEATLOAF WITH TOMATOES

• 100 g crustless sourdough bread, crustless
  150 ml milk

• 500g minced beef
  300g minced pork or coarse pork sausages, skinned

• 1 medium onion, coarsely grated

• Half red capsicum, very finely chopped

• 1 tbsp tomato paste
  1 egg, beaten

• 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley

• 1 tsp dried oregano
  Half tsp ground nutmeg

• 1 tsp smoked paprika

• 1 tsp sea salt, a few grinds of black pepper

For the topping:

• 1 can cherry tomatoes (or normal tomatoes, chopped) and sauce

• 2 tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup)

• Good slug of olive oil

• Half tsp dried oregano

Heat oven to 190C. 

Soak the bread in the milk for 10 minutes, then squeeze dry and finely chop.

To make the topping, combine tomatoes and tomato sauce (ketchup), olive oil and oregano in a pan and bring to the boil, stirring until smooth.

Simmer for 2 minutes until thick and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the beef, pork or sausage meat, grated onion, bread, red capsicum, tomato paste, beaten egg, parsley, oregano, nutmeg, paprika and sea salt and pepper, bringing it together, lightly, until combined.

Line a medium-sized loaf tin with baking paper so that it overhangs on each side, and lightly oil, and place on a baking tray to catch any overflow.

Pack in the mixture and shape into a round at the top like a high-top loaf.

Top with as much tomato and sauce as will fit, and bake for 1 hour or until cooked through.

When cooked, drain off the juices and save ( see note above on sauce potential).

Lift the meatloaf out of the pan using the baking paper ‘handles’, and scrape off any icky bits.  

Carve into thick slices, and serve with any remaining tomato sauce. Serves 4.

Tips:  My loaf tin is 20 cm long, 10 cm wide, and 8cm deep; not huge. No loaf tin? Go free-range, and just shape the meat mixture into a loaf ( oblong or round) with your hands, top with tomatoes and bake on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Thanks for dropping by! And as always, thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for suggesting meatloaf. Never mind that he often suggests meatloaf. This one just hit the right space/time continuum.

I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to be recognised in Australia’s Constitution.