Recipe: Sausage Pizza Meatloaf

On the occasional food fest the family likes to chow down on this old favorite... it combines a hearty (and dense!) meatloaf that has very little bread crumbs (I hate a filler filled meatloaf!). You get that pizza sauce, oregano, sausage flavor! BooM!

Sausage Pizza Meat Loaf

Recipe & Notes:

3lbs Ground Beef 80%
2lbs Sweet Italian Sausage (if you like a stronger sausage, use 1lb mild and 1lb sweet)
3 eggs
Salt
Pepper
1/2 Cup of Breadcrumbs (Italian preferred)
1 cup shredded cheese (moz or a mixed blend is fine)

Glaze:
Ketchup, Pizza Sauce (not tomato paste, but PIZZA SAUCE) *if you want to experiment, hoisin sauce is an excellent addition just add to the ingredients (and finish with crunchy noodles!).
Mix 1/4 cup Ketchup and 1/4 cup Pizza Sauce w/ salt, pepper and your choice of herbs. Oregano is a great choice! Mix well. Let sit.

Herbs: Here's the thing folks, salt and pepper do not count as your herbs! Experiment, try different herbs and learn what you like.

For this: I like 3 nice pinches of dried Oregano, dried Rosemary & dried Thyme, also added to this, you should add garlic POWDER and black pepper to taste.

Cooking Instructions:
Bring the meat to room temperature before working with it.
Set the shredded cheese aside until later.
Mix all the ingredients for the loaf together in a large bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.
Mix the ingredients for the glaze together in a small bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.

(take this time to clean your station. Wipe it all down, wash your hands.)

Preheat your oven to 375

Form your loaf out of the 5lbs of meat you have in your bowl. Make it 4 fingers tall and approx the shape of a rectangle. push a 1 inch canyon in the meat for later and place on a cookie sheet and put in a ready oven.

after approx 45 minutes take the meatloaf out of the oven and use a spatula to take the meatloaf and put it on a baking cooling rack or elevated oven rack and place back onto the cookie sheet.
(Doing this allows the meat to cook on all sides and not have a soggy bottom!)
Sauce the top of the meatloaf with the glaze and until its thick and goopey and in the canyon we created on the meat... enough to cover everything, but not too much that its sliding all over the place!

Place back into the oven for 10 minutes - take out, add shredded cheese to the top of the meatloaf and then place back into the oven for 5 minutes, or until the cheese meets your desired done-ness.

Suggested Sides: Mashed Potatoes and Peas or Sauteed Greens.

Let the meatloaf sit for 10 minutes before cutting and enjoy :)
if you make it, leave me a message on how you liked it!