Italian Style Turkey Meatloaf
Difficulty: Easy
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves 6
Meatloaf is an American staple that has earned a bad reputation over the years for being bland, dry and boring. However, here at ITADAKIMASU, we’d like to let you see the massive potential this simple, cheap, and delicious dish can bring to the table. If you think about it, meatloaf is just a bread-shaped meatball. With that idea in mind, we decided to base the flavors of this meatball off of a classic meatball recipe with some creative twists. By switching out beef for turkey, you can really introduce a lot more external flavors, while keeping the calories down. By sauteing fennel and onion with red chili flakes, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, you mimic the flavor profile of a hot italian sausage while boosting the umami and acidity of the loaf.
This dish can definitely be made with ground beef, pork, or chicken but we wanted to show that even with a very mild meat like turkey, we could create a juicy and flavorful meatloaf.
Food Dictionary:
Fennel: A sweet, anise root vegetable. Part of the carrot family.
Mise En Place: French for “everything in its place”; culinary term for preparing ingredients in advance
The Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 small bulb of fennel
1 small onion
2 medium eggs
1.5 cups of breadcrumbs
1 cup of milk
1 cup of cream
1 bulb of garlic
3 lbs of ground turkey
2 tsp crushed red chili flakes
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chicken bouillon
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 bunch of parsley
5 oz grated Parmesan
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce or 5 cups of homemade marinara sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
The Process
Start by preparing your mise en place, finely mince the onion, fennel (bulb only), garlic and parsley.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the chicken bouillon, breadcrumbs, milk and cream and let soak for at least 10 minutes.
In a medium sized saute pan, saute the onion, fennel, and garlic until almost golden brown. Then add the dried oregano, and red chili flakes and toast in the oil for 2 minutes.
Then add the soy sauce and balsamic vinegar until the mixture becomes sticky and all the liquid has been cooked out. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, add the ground turkey, parsley, grated Parmesan cheese, eggs, soaked bread crumbs (with half of the remaining liquid), and the cooked fennel and onion.
Season the mixture with salt and pepper at this stage.
In order to know if the mixture is properly seasoned or not, cook a very small piece in the microwave or in a pan. Taste and the adjust
In a large disposable lasagna pan, pour the mixture in and shape into the classic meatloaf shape.
Note: the mixture should be very wet so do not pour over the sauce before letting the outer layer set first.
Bake in a 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes and then pour over a tomato sauce of your choice.
Reduce the ovens temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for another 30 minutes or until the internal temperature of the meatloaf reaches 160 degrees F.
Checking with an instant read thermometer every 10 minutes helps insure you do not over bake/overcook your meatloaf.
After removing from the oven allow the meatloaf to rest for 10 minutes before slicing, serve alongside some mashed potatoes or some pasta.
