Most meatloaf recipes are pretty much the same and while perfectly good and satisfying, I always felt they lack imagination and are missing out on flavour. That said, there are typically two ingredients in conventional meatloaf recipes that I actually profoundly dislike. One is Ketchup and the other is Worcestershire Sauce. So here is a recipe that substitutes those two components with ingredients that I believe make for a better meat loaf. But there is more to it than just that, so…
Proscuitto Wrapped Meatloaf
Ingredients
Meatloaf
- 1 kg Ground beef regular or lean but not extra lean
- 8-10 slices Proscuitto
- 250 ml Panko breadcrumbs
- 1 Onion large
- ¼ cup Kalamata olives pitted and chopped
- 2 Eggs large
- 3 cloves Garlic peeled, germ removed, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp BBQ sauce *see notes
- ½ tin Tomato paste
- 3 sprigs Thyme fresh, leafs only, *see notes
- 1 sprig Rosemary fresh, leafs only, chopped, *see notes
- 1 tsp Basil dried
- 1 tsp Parsley dried
- 3 tsp Beef bullion powder or 2 cubes crumbled
- 1 tsp Black pepper
Glaze
- 1 tin Tomato past about ¼ cup
- 1 tbsp Honey e.g. wildflour
- 3 tbsp Water warm
- 2 tsp Soy sauce
- 1 tsp Hot sauce optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- Oil or spray a suitable loaf form or baking dish
Glaze
- Mix all ingredient in a small bowl and set aside
Loaf
- Add Panko to a large bowl
- Chop onion into chunks and purée in a blender
- Add onion purée to Panko and mix well
- Add all dry ingredients and mix well
- Add remaining ingredients and mix well using your hands
- Form mixture into a loaf
- On a clean surface or cutting board lay out proscuitto in two overlapping rows of 4 slices and place loaf at one end
- Start rolling the loaf across the proscuitto. It shoud pick up the proscuitto but you may have to coax it along to adhere to the loaf
- If necessary, use two more slices of proscuitto to cover the ends of the log
- Transfer the loaf into the prepared loaf tin or baking dish
- Brush ½ the glaze generously over the loaf
- Bake the loaf for 45 minutes
- Remove from oven and brush it with most of the remaing glaze
- Bake the loaf for an additional 30 minutes
- Remove from oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes
- Turn out, brush remaining glaze over top and carve into slices about 20 to 25 mm thick
- Serve with your favorite sides and gravy (Shown here wth Hasselback potato and green beans)