Marisette Meat Loaf

Marisette was in my now inactive book club, headed by Karen Novak. The club initially met at the now-closed McGinnis Sisters grocery store in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and later at the Monroeville library. In 2018, she volunteered to host one of the meetings at her house, which is where the rowing club she belonged to is located around Verona. She served meatloaf, the recipe of which she shared with me. This version is one I tweaked from hers. 

Really good. Actually, the veggie mixture with breadcrumbs and seasoning is good without the meat. Just decrease the salt. Overall, I would just cut down the salt I used and put the veggies in the blender or cut them more finely. I like a bit of texture, but the vegetable morsels made cutting slices hard. Overall, I love this meatloaf. 

MARISETTE’S MEAT LOAF

INGREDIENTS

• 2 medium onion, cut finely 
• 2 small carrot, cut finely
• 2 stalk celery, cut finely 
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup seasoned or unseasoned breadcrumbs 
• 1/4 cup or more cup water
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoon flax seed in 6 tablespoons water
• 1 cup oat milk
• 1 1/2 salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 1/2 pound ground beef, 85% lean
• 2 cups ketchup (with smoked paprika if you like)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Place onion, carrot, celery and garlic in sauté pan with water. Allow the water to boil to soften the vegetables. Continue this gentle boil until mixture dries up. 

In a large bowl, combine the tomato paste, Worcestershire, flax seed slurry, milk, salt, pepper and breadcrumbs and mix until well combined. Add the meat and the vegetable mixture. Stir until well combined.

Spread the meat mixture into 4 little loaf pan or pan of your choice and top with ketsup. Place loaf pans in a larger pan for ease of transfer in and out of oven.  Bake at 350 F for 1 hour. A bit soft in texture. 

Set aside for about 15 minutes or more  before slicing