Traditional meatloaf recipe with the delicious twist of using Italian pork sausage in addition to ground beef. Also includes onion, celery, garlic, egg, parsley, and bread crumbs.
This meatloaf is one of the first recipes we put on Simply Recipes over ten years ago. It’s one of my father’s favorite things to cook and anytime we kids know he’s making it, we make our way to my parent’s house for dinner.
My dad’s trick? He mixes Italian pork sausage (half sweet, half spicy) in with ground beef. The original recipe came from an old issue of Gourmet (April 1994) and my father has been changing it over the years to his taste (including using Italian sausage instead of plain ground pork).
It’s no ordinary meatloaf. It takes a little extra prep time to make the “sofritto” base of minced carrots, onions, celery, and garlic, but it is so so worth it! Like a giant Italian meatball, in loaf form.
It looks like the sofritto could be a time consuming extra step to prep, but you can easily put the vegetables in a food processor or mini chopper to speed up the prep time. The smaller mince size that you can get with the food processor will also help the meatloaf hold together better.
Classic Meatloaf Recipe
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Yield: Serves 4 to 6, with plenty for leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches
Italian sausage makes a difference in this recipe! We use a combination of spicy and sweet, but it you only have one, choose sweet Italian sausage.
If you don't have access to spicy ground pork or Italian sausage, mix in a half teaspoon each of fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, and hot sauce into regular ground pork.
Save prep time by roughly chopping the celery, carrot, onion, green onions, and garlic and pulsing them in a food processor or mini-chopper to get them finely chopped.
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup of finely chopped onion
- 1 celery rib, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup of finely chopped green onion, including the green onion greens
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 Tbsp)
- 2 teaspoon salt (use 1 1/2 teaspoons if using Italian sausage)
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2/3 cup ketchup, divided 1/3 and 1/3
- 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef (chuck)
- 3/4 pound of spicy ground pork sausage or Italian sausage (a mix of sweet and hot if you are using links)
- 1 cup fresh bread crumbs (take a couple slices of fresh bread and pulse in a blender until you have crumbs)
- 2 large eggs, beaten slightly
- 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
Read More : Classic Meatloaf