Meatloaf Roll-up with a Mushroom Sauce

July 26, 2011

Category: Recipe
Tag(s): beef, meatloaf, mushrooms, pork, zucchini

Growing up, I didn’t like meatloaf. My ma’s recipe was… missing something. Even now I don’t really ever make meatloaf, it’s just never been a favorite, or even a top 20 food for me. But when thinking about trying to make a good meatloaf recipe, I realized there wasn’t anything wrong with the mixture, (meat, breadcrumbs, herbs and spices,) but what in the world was missing? Something is missing, I just knew it. And then it hit me: add a filling! Well, sort of. I decided to add thinly sliced ribbons of zucchini. This was achieved by using my mandoline slicer, but you could certainly use a very sharp knife instead.

Roulades/pinwheels are not my strong suit. I’ll admit, I was nervous about attempting this because I’ve had such horrible luck in the past with cookie pinwheels. (Like that one Christmas where half of the cookie dough never met the oven because it met the wall first. Yeah. That happened.) But with a little patience and carefulness, this worked out great.

Ingredients

12 oz. ground pork
12 oz. ground beef
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 c breadcrumbs
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground thyme (I didn’t have fresh on hand. Dried works well enough.)
1/4 c grated onion
s+p
12-14 thin slices of zucchini

Instructions

Mix together breadcrumbs, cheese, garlic powder, thyme, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
Place both meats and grated onion in a second bowl, and sprinkle dried mixture on top. Add beaten egg, and gently mix. The key to mixing meatloaf is to use your fingertips and poke-poke-poke, and stir. Do not squeeze-and-mash. Squeeze-and-mash will give you dense, heavy, and over-mixed meatloaf.
On a clean counter, lay down a piece of plastic wrap, and drizzle some olive oil on top, (so that the meat wont stick when you go to roll it up.).
Spread your mixture into an even rectangle.
Lay zucchini across meat layer, and using the plastic wrap as your guide, start to gently roll the meatloaf.

**If your loaf seems like it’s starting to fall apart a little, press gently, and keep wrapped in plastic. To help keep it together, pop it in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes before unwrapping from plastic wrap.
When you’re ready to bake, set oven to 350 degrees, and bake for 40-50 minutes.

I know that all meatloaves have glazes on top, but I don’t like ‘em. So I opted to make a mushroom sauce instead.

Ingredients for Mushroom Sauce

6 oz mushrooms, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic
~1/4 c onion, finely chopped
1 c chicken broth (or beef broth)
s+p
olive oil

Instructions for Mushroom Sauce

Add ~1tbsp of olive oil to a pan set to medium-high heat, and add mushrooms, onion, and garlic.
Cook until little bits of mushroom are brown, and onions are translucent. In the beginning, things will be very wet, because the mushrooms will be giving off a lot of liquid. Raise the heat to high, to help evaporate any excess liquid. This will help the mushrooms get brown, and not steam in it’s own juices.

: See how the pieces of mushrooms are brown, and the onions are translucent? This is what you’re going for.

Add chicken broth, and s+p (to taste,) and simmer until liquid has reduced by half. (This should take about 5-7 minutes.) The chicken broth will pick up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, this is called deglazing.
Take half of mushrooms and liquid, and put into a blender (I used a stick blender in a plastic cup, same thing.) Blend half of mixture until it’s a paste. Add paste back to the pan with the rest of the mushrooms and liquid, and stir. This helps thicken the sauce, without having to add heavy cream or flour/butter.

The leftovers can be covered, kept in the fridge and will last about 3-4 days. The best way to reheat leftover meatloaf? Meatloaf panini with provolone, and use the mushroom sauce as a dip. Mmm! I’m excited about my lunch tomorrow.