The Comforts of Fall....

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post.... but have no fear, this DOESN'T mean I haven't been cooking!  Now that the fall is upon us, it's time to switch gears a bit - less grilling and more slow cooking on the stove top and in the oven.  What says comfort more than an indulgent meatloaf smothered in gravy?  Over the summer, I made little mini turkey meatloafs that were healthy and cooked up in 15 minutes in a mini muffin loaf pan... so, now that October had finally rolled around, I knew it was time to make a true, full size, stick-to-your-ribs meatloaf.

Italian Style Meatloaf
2 tsp fennel seed
2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 small sweet onion, diced
3 small carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
4 cloves of garlic, grated
1 T sun dried tomato paste (I used Amore brand)
1 T Italian herb paste (again, Amore brand)
1 T Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrin's)
1/3 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
3/4 cup GF bread crumbs (see Note **)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 T Heinz ketchup
1 1/4 lbs lean ground beef (93% lean)
1 1/4 lbs ground pork
kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

** Note:  about the GF bread crumbs - when I buy frozen gluten free bread, I pull out the ends of the bread loaves and store them in a plastic freezer bag - when I need bread crumbs, I toast these slices well and zip them in the food processor.

For the meatloaf - preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Get out a large mixing bowl and put the ground beef and pork into the bowl, breaking it/mixing it up lightly.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.  Then, drop your dried rosemary, fennel seed and red pepper flakes into a spice grinder to get a coarsely ground mixture - sprinkle this mixture over the meat.  Then to prepare the vegetables to add to the meatloaf, heat up a medium saute pan with the olive oil.  Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and saute over medium heat until the veggies begin to soften - about 5-7 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Let the veggie mixture cool slightly before adding it to the meat in the mixing bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients - tomato and herb pastes, Worcestershire sauce, grated cheese, bread crumbs and eggs.  Mix up the meatloaf using your hands until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed, but being careful not to overwork the meat.  Gather the meat mixture together and form a long loaf in a lightly greased pyrex baking dish.  Add the ketchup to the top of the meatloaf and spread it all over so that the meatloaf gets nicely caramelized on top.  Bake in the oven for about an hour, until the juices run clear.

Once the meatloaf comes out of the oven to rest for 10 minutes, you can begin on the gravy:

1 T butter
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 T gluten free flour (I used the Namaste all purpose flour)
1/4 cup marsala wine
1 cup beef broth
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt & pepper to taste

Melt the butter into the olive oil and add the shallot - cooking for a couple of minutes until softened and fragrant.  Season with salt & pepper.  Sprinkle with gluten free flour and mix well until the flour begins to bubble and thicken.  Add the marsala wine and beef broth and whisk vigorously to mix and deglaze the bottom of the pan.  Once the mixture begins to thicken, whisk in the mustard and Worcestershire sauce and do some final taste testing for seasoning.  Add salt & pepper if needed.

I served this meatloaf with a very simple salad of mixed greens.  It was delicious - the quick gravy was very tasty for being prepared in only a few minutes and I loved the way all of the ingredients in the meatloaf added an important step in making the final product.  Every ingredient was intentional and critical in making this an "Italian Style" meatloaf.  Try this out to warm yourself and your family up on a cool fall evening.