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This recipe harkens back to one of my mother’s recipes that happened to be my favorite. While I have done a version of this dish in the Instant Pot, this time I took it back to basics and used old faithful, the oven!  Inspired by Chrissy Teigen, I tried her Spicy Italian Meatloaf. What drew me to this recipe was the ground beef and hot Italian sausage mixture for the loaf. I truly had never thought to try this before in previous meatloaves I’ve made. Now, obviously, I’m biased and nothing will beat my mom’s recipe but this is definitely a dish you all should try.

I sought out Italian sausage in bulk. For some, this may be a little more difficult to find but worst case scenario you can always purchase Italian sausage links and simply remove the casings. Trust me, it all tastes the same. It’s important to not overwork the meat mixture when you are combining all the ingredients. Admittedly, I may have not mixed my meat enough. I found there were large chunks in the loaf with just sausage and others that were just beef. This may have been the intent but in the future, I intend on doing a better job comingling everything together.

In using sausage there will be a lot more grease in the pan once the loaf is cooked. I did let the meatloaf sit for a while in an attempt to let some soak back in, but ultimately it was too much for my taste. I poured a bit of it out. Generally, I am not a fan of the ketchup glaze many recipes call for but this one was actually pretty tasty.  This may not be my new go-to loaf but it’s definitely a great one to spice up the mundane!

Spicy Italian Meatloaf

What You Need:

• 3 slices white sandwich bread, fresh or left out for a day
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1 cup roughly chopped mushrooms
• 1 pound hot Italian sausage (bulk)
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup finely chopped onions
• 1 cup finely grated carrots
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Instructions:
Click here to Cook With Me!

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• In a food processor, process the bread to fine crumbs (1 cup). Transfer the bread crumbs to a large bowl, cover them with the milk, and let soak for 5 minutes.
• In the processor, mince the mushrooms until fine. Add to the bread crumbs along with the sausage, beef, onions, carrots, egg, Worcestershire sauce, salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.
• Gently mix with your hands, until just combined. (If you mash it up too much, the meatloaf gets tough.)
• Coat a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray or grease it with butter and place the meatloaf mixture in the pan.
• In a small bowl, stir together the ketchup and brown sugar and coat the top of the meatloaf with it.
• Bake until the meatloaf is cooked through and the glaze is slightly dried about 1 hour. Let cool slightly before slicing. Some liquid will pool in the bottom of the pan. Some will be absorbed back into the meatloaf as it cools.
• Serve and enjoy!

Cook With Me:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• In a food processor, process the bread to fine crumbs (1 cup). Transfer the bread crumbs to a large bowl, cover them with the milk, and let soak for 5 minutes.
• In the processor, mince the mushrooms until fine. Add to the bread crumbs along with the sausage, beef, onions, carrots, egg, Worcestershire sauce, salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.
  

  
• Gently mix with your hands, until just combined. (If you mash it up too much, the meatloaf gets tough.)
• Coat a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray or grease it with butter and place the meatloaf mixture in the pan.
• In a small bowl, stir together the ketchup and brown sugar and coat the top of the meatloaf with it.
  

  
• Bake until the meatloaf is cooked through and the glaze is slightly dried about 1 hour. Let cool slightly before slicing. Some liquid will pool in the bottom of the pan. Some will be absorbed back into the meatloaf as it cools.
• Serve and enjoy!

Inspired by this recipe.