Italian sausage makes a difference in this meatloaf 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 finely chopped onion
- 1 celery rib, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup 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
- 1/3 cup tomato sauce (RAOS)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 pound of ground beef (chuck)
- 1 pound of mild Italian sausage
- 1 cup fresh Italian bread crumbs
- 2 large eggs, beaten slightly
- 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
MEATLOAF TOPPING SAUCE
- 1/3 cup tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
DIRECTIONS
1 Preheat oven to 350°F, with a rack in the middle of the oven.
2 Cook the vegetables: Melt the butter in a large, thick-bottomed skillet, on medium heat. When the butter starts to foam, add the finely chopped onions, celery, carrot, green onions and garlic to the pan and cook for 5 minutes.
Cover the pan and cook for another 5 minutes, until the carrots are tender, stirring every so often.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the Worcestershire sauce and one-third cup of the marinara sauce. Cook for another minute and remove from heat to cool.
3 Make the meatloaf mixture: Once the vegetables have cooled to the touch, place them in a large bowl with the ground beef, Italian sausage, eggs, breadcrumbs and parsley. Use your (very clean) hands to mix them together until everything is evenly distributed.
4 Place in loaf pan, cover with topping sauce: Place the meatloaf mixture into a loaf pan (either 4×8 or 5×9) and press to make compact in the pan. Or you can form a free-standing loaf onto a rimmed baking pan. Cover the meatloaf mixture with the sauce.
5 Bake: Bake for 1 hour at 350°F, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the meatloaf reads 155°F.
Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Then use a metal spatula to gently lift the meatloaf out of the loaf pan to a serving plate.
6 Serve: Cut into thick slices to serve. The meatloaf makes great leftovers, just chill and reheat. Slices are good in sandwiches as well.