Friday, March 19, 2010

Mini Italian Meatloaf

Sometimes the tastiest dish are born from using up what you have on hand, this is one of those dishes. I had half a pound each of ground beef & Italian sausage plus some roasted red peppers lingering in the fridge that needed to be used. We like to make our meatloaf with different ground meats so I thought why not use the Italian sausage & play on those flavors.
#77 - Mini Italian  Meatloaf
Boy, did these ever taste good! Matt wasn't so sure about the red peppers but they added great flavor & were't overpowering at all. I especially liked the glaze of ketchup & red wine on top with a little bit of grated Parmesan. The bacon wrapped around each meatloaf looked really great plus added a nice smokey/saltiness.

I was worried a pound of meat wouldn't be enough to fill one of our loaf pans so I made mini meatloaves in muffin tins. This actually ended up being a good way for us to control our portion size to about 3 oz of meat per serving. We each ate one for dinner & the remaining four will make nice sandwiches on some homemade oatmeal bread.

You can skip the bacon if you want. We actually made two without it but, found that the ones with bacon around them came out from the muffin tins much easier.

Mini Italian Meatloaf

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 c roasted red pepper, chopped
1 t dried basil
1/2 t dried oregano
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 egg
salt & pepper
1/2 c bread crumbs
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb Italian sausage
6 slices bacon (you can do this with just 4 strips. Cut them to fit the tins & use the leftover pieces to got around the last two tins)
2 T ketchup
1 T red wine
grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Put the onion, garlic, red pepper, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and egg in a bowl. Beat lightly with a fork. Season with salt & pepper. Mix in the bread crumbs. Add the meat & use your hands to mix together being careful not to work the meat too much.

Grease or spray 6 muffin tins. Place a slice a bacon around the side of each muffin tin. Add the meatloaf mixture in the middle of the bacon filling the tins to the top.
Mini Italian Meatloaves
Place the muffin tray on a baking tray to protect your oven from drips. Bake for 30 minutes.

Whisk the ketchup & wine together & brush on the top each meatloaf. Then sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Bake for another 10 minutes. Let sit 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

6 servings.

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19 comments:

  1. So goooood! I also love the idea of mini loaves. I think meatloaf is one of the things I miss the most.

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  2. I just saw this on a French blog.....mini loaves of goodness wrapped in bacon in muffin tins!
    I think I will try this too, though it is not really in my spring lower fat menu!
    LOOKS GREAT!

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  3. Anything wrapped in bacon is a must try for me

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  4. Fantastic idea. These look so good. I may need to try this real soon. Nice, very nice!

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  5. I agree, the best recipes are created spur of the moment and with what is on hand. Lovely!

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  6. Kat, this method is genius and I would agree on the use of red peppers.

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  7. brilliant! i have used Italian sausage in my meatloaf before with excellent results. i really like the bacon wrapping - just like topping a large loaf.

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  8. bacon-wrapped? and i'm done. :)

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  9. I love the mix of beef and sausage.

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  10. This looks so good! I've never had meatloaf before, the bacon wrapping sounds like a wonderful idea too!

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  11. Those really are going to make the world's best sandwiches! I think I have all the wherewithall to make these for dinner some time this week.

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  12. What a great idea to make mini meatloaves in a muffin tin! So clever to use the bacon as a baking cup..love it!

    As always stunning photos!

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  13. Great idea, mini and with bacon!

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  14. Yes, I'm also intrigued by the use of the muffin tin :) Was there a trick to getting them out nice and neat?

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  15. Giff - The bacon wrapped ones just pulled away from the sides of the tin while baking & then Matt used an offset spatula to pop them right out.

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  16. I had to go look up what an offset spatula was :) Once upon a time, I used a smaller version on large oil paintings!

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  17. This is the 2nd recipe I have tried from your site and again my husband loved it, "best meatloaf ever" to quote him. We had the meatloaf sandwiches the following night and they were equally good. Next time I might try mixing some of the ketchup sauce into meat mixture and possible try with pancetta instead of bacon; I am envisioning a salted pork cup.

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  18. Wowzer! A-m-a-zing! We couldn't get enough! This will definitely be added to our permanent recipe book! We ended up adding in some chopped up pecans which added a nice texture! Incredible!

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  19. Made these tonight and they were a big hit with my teens and I - thanks for a great recipe! By spraying the tins ahead of time and the simple bacon wrapping, they popped right out! :)

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