Life of Wry

I’ve been wanting to make this meatloaf for a few years, ever since I visited Sally and her parents in Mountain Ranch and her mom served this fantastic dish. It’s her standby meatloaf recipe — Bologna style — one she got years ago in a Biba cookbook (Biba Caggiano, the legendary Italian chef from Sacramento who died just about 7 months ago).

I went back into my archives and dug up a few photos from that visit (I’d even written about it here: https://lifeofwry.com/2014/10/19/sixty-two-and-cranking-along/). It was about the time of the Alden’s 62 wedding anniversary.

Here we are consuming said delectable meatloaf:

(And I just need to say, 5 and a half years later, the Aldens are still in their beautiful country home; he’s 95 or so, she’s 91.. struggling with health and aging issues, but still living on their own.)

So I made it and it was just wonderful, but not without challenges along the way.

Here’s the loaf itself (yet to be cooked), made with a combo of turkey and pork (v. beef), and covered in bread crumbs. Inside: fresh torn bread, milk, eggs, parmesan, freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pep. I left out the pancetta only b/c I didn’t have any.

Then you saute chopped onion, carrots, celery and parsley in olive oil:

The meatloaf rests upon this mixture and is baked for about 25 minutes, then wine is added to the pot to deglaze and flavor the veggie bits and baked for another 10 minutes until the wine’s gone. Then a couple of cups of chopped tomatoes are added (canned, she calls for) and baked for another 30 minutes or so.

So…   I’d do some other things to keep this from happening, but other than the not-so-attractive appearance, it was seriously, intensely flavorful and moist. I can’t wait for leftovers.

I managed to smoke up our entire house — like thick black smoke that required the opening of all windows and the running of fans — when I forgot I was sauteeing potatoes in butter (bad me, I was blogging last night’s post and got totally distracted until I became aware of this awful smell and realized I’d left the potatoes unattended…)

Jim and performed burnectomies on each poor spud-half… and netted enough, actually, for two decent servings…

Don’t recommend this last part, but the rest of the dinner was great. #cookshumbleopinion.