Here is Meatloaf Florentine style, a typical italian dish that all my students appreciate and ask me how preparing.
And I’m very keen to put it in Cuoche in Vacanza cookery courses.
Reading here and there in the historical notebooks about Italian and Tuscan cuisine, I found that meatloaf was born in 1300, and then it was developed in 1700 as “chopped meat, mixed with cheese, pine nuts, raisins, spices, breadcrumbs, egg whites”; in 1800 the use of spices, pine nuts and raisins (used by the upper classes), was left to address this dish to the tables of the middle class or the lower classes.
In fact the history of meatloaf leaves no doubt: it is a dish from poor and rural; it’s the King of leftovers.
How to forget my grandmothers who, after the rich lunches and dinners during festivity time or simply with many guests, grinded up the leftover roasted or boiled meat, took a couple of eggs from the hen house and proceeded to mix all the available ingredients; sometimes adding boiled potatoes, sometimes bread soaked in milk.
As a child I watched the slices of meatloaf in the dish with eyes full of greed and mouthering, the same happy look that I’m seeing today through the eyes of my daughters, who love this dish in all its variations.
As a child I watched the slices of meatloaf in the dish with eyes full of greed and mouthering, the same happy look that I’m seeing today through the eyes of my daughters, who love this dish in all its variations.
And in fact this is the highlight of the meatloaf: you can prepare it in many and varied ways, just like the meatballs (find the recipe here)
I remember my grandmother pouring the sauce for the meatloaf from top to bottom, with a large wooden spoon, it was amazing for me because I realized that every time it had a different flavor, but always delicious.
The weaknesses and difficulties in preparing the meatloaf are essentially two:
- unless the meat is well mixed (with whole eggs or egg whites) it could be not compact and tend to break
- if you cook it too much, tends to dry and then “farewell” to what, in my opinion, is the most valuable quality of meatloaf: juiciness and softness.
What ingredients for the meatloaf?
- with cooked meat
- with bread soaked in milk
- with boiled potatoes
- with raw meat
- with tomato sauce
- with ragu sauce (if it is only made of potatoes or bread)
- with “garden” sauce (that one of the below recipe). The sauce’ll be more creamy as you use more veg quantity
What I am introducing today is my favorite meatloaf, namely:
my version “Florentine Meatloaf” (starting from raw meat).
Inside the “meatball” we’re going to mold, is introduced a boiled egg, so that it will appear in the center of the slice of meatloaf, providing a treat to the eyes.
It is a easy dish which success is assured and Artusi yet taked about it in his book: The Science in the kitchen and the Art of eating well.
It is a easy dish which success is assured and Artusi yet taked about it in his book: The Science in the kitchen and the Art of eating well.
I revisited this recipe, substantially, in the cooking mode: wrapping the meat in parchment paper, which will be removed when meatloaf is almost cooked.
My friend +Maria Furnari wrote to me: “Help me please! Meatballs and Meatloaf are my weak point in cooking, give me some advice and public the recipe asap”.
Well, here is the recipe Mary, it is for you and all my students who like to learn how to cook Italian, from abroad, under the guidance of a Tuscan doc cooking classes trainer like me.
Do not hesitate to write to me, to ask me questions, I always replied to all with great pleasure!
Leave a Reply