I didn’t grow up in a meatloaf household. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve only had meatloaf once. So when my boyfriend put in a special request for meatloaf I wasn’t exactly thrilled. But he rarely asks for anything specific, and is always willing to eat whatever I make (I jokingly refer to him as “I Can Eat That”) so I think he deserves this one request. I decided to try a recipe from Tyler Florence with a few changes.
Ingredients:
Tomato Relish:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and finely diced
4 plum tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 12 ounce bottle of ketchup
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Meatloaf:
1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons milk
1 pound ground beef
1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
2 eggs
Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs
Salt and pepper
3 bacon slices
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop the onion, garlic, red peppers and tomatoes.
To make the tomato relish, add olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic and bay leaves for 2 minutes.
Add the red peppers and cook for 3 minutes or until soft.
Add the tomatoes and stir.
Add the parsley, ketchup and Worcestershire and season with salt and pepper.
Simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Allow to cool.
In a small bowl, add the bread crumbs and the milk, stirring to combine. It should have a paste like consistency.
In a large mixing bowl, remove the sausage from its casing. Add the ground beef.
Combine with 1.5 cups tomato relish, eggs and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Add the breadcrumbs, and combine all the ingredients.
Add the mixture to a loaf pan.
Coat the meatloaf with a 1/2 cup of the tomato relish. Add the bacon strips on top lengthwise.
Bake for 1 hour or until the bacon is crisp, rotating every 20 minutes so that the bacon cooks evenly. Remove from the oven and cool before slicing.
Serve with the remaining tomato relish.
I’m pretty sure if you add bacon to basically anything, it’s better.
And boy is that a lot of bacon! I surprised my boyfriend with the meatloaf today and he was pretty darn excited about it.
My boyfriend really enjoyed this recipe! The Italian sausage added a great flavor and the relish really kept the meatloaf moist. The bacon was a good addition but didn’t overpower the rest of the flavors. I will be sure to make this again.
The best part about meatloaf is that is freezable, so he even gets to take some home with him. This took a good amount of time to make, but because it is freezer friendly, it’s worth it. You can whip up a huge batch on a Saturday and have meals stored away for future busy nights. To save time on defrosting, portion out the meatloaf into 1-2 person portions so that it doesn’t take too long to defrost.
Bacon-Topped Meatloaf
Recipe Type: Dinner, Beef, Pork, Freezable
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
- Tomato Relish:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and finely diced
- 4 plum tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 1 12 ounce bottle of ketchup
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- Salt and pepper
- Meatloaf:
- 1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
- 2 eggs
- Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs
- Salt and pepper
- 3 bacon slices
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop the onion, garlic, red peppers and tomatoes.
- To make the tomato relish, add olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic and bay leaves for 2 minutes.
- Add the red peppers and cook for 3 minutes or until soft.
- Add the tomatoes and stir.
- Add the parsley, ketchup and Worcestershire and season with salt and pepper.
- Simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Allow to cool.
- In a small bowl, add the bread crumbs and the milk, stirring to combine. It should have a paste like consistency.
- In a large mixing bowl, remove the sausage from its casing. Add the ground beef.
- Combine with 1.5 cups tomato relish, eggs and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Add the breadcrumbs, and combine all the ingredients.
- Add the mixture to a loaf pan.
- Coat the meatloaf with a 1/2 cup of the tomato relish. Add the bacon strips on top lengthwise.
- Bake for 1 hour or until the bacon is crisp, rotating every 20 minutes so that the bacon cooks evenly. Remove from the oven and cool before slicing.
- Serve with the remaining tomato relish.
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Yes bacon really makes everything better.
I agree with Culinary Lens. Bacon makes everything taste better.
Mmmm….bacon!!! This sounds great! I recently got some Himalayan pink salt and organic peppercorns from Sustainable Sourcing https://secure.sustainablesourcing.com and I’ll have to try them out in this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Oh, I love meatloaf! The addition of Italian sausage is a wonderful idea~
Ah! Meatloaf! My favorite recession food!! I’ve made it 100 different way but never with sausage or bacon. I can’t wait to try this.
I haven’t had meatloaf in so long, but this recipe sounds really tasty, especially with the bacon!