Meatloaf!

A couple weeks ago (when I was waiting for our refrigerator repair man to show up) I caught an episode of Tyler Florence on the Food Network. He made his dad's Ultimate Meatloaf and it looked fantastic! So, tonight we gave it a try.

Ultimate Meatloaf
This recipe was made for 6-8 servings (I cut the recipe in half)

Preheat oven to 350F

Tomato relish
1/2 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bay leaf
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 tomatoes, seeded and diced
handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
1/2 C + 2 T ketchup
1 T Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and black pepper

Meatloaf
2 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into chunks by hand
whole milk
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1 egg
handful of fresh thyme leaves

Salt and black pepper
3 bacon slices

Heat olive oil over medium heat and saute onion, garlic and bay until softened.

Add red peppers and cook until softened. Add the tomatoes, stir in parsley, ketchup, Worcesershire, salt and pepper.

Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Tear pieces of white bread and cover with barely enough milk to cover.

Mix ground beef, ground pork, thyme, egg and almost a cup of the tomato relish. Squeeze excess milk out of bread and add to meat mixture. Season with salt and pepper. 

Cover baking sheet with parchment paper and form meat mixture into a loaf. Coat the top with almost all the relish (leaving some for garnish).

Lay slices of bacon on top lengthwise. 

Bake for 1 hour (or less), until bacon is crisp and meatloaf is firm.

YUM! We enjoyed this with mashed potatoes and green beans with sliced almonds and carmelized onion. This dish was good. Would I make it again?....  maybe.