In the USA we call it meatloaf. In Italy they call it Polpettone.
I have made meatloaf a couple of times lately. It’s a good and fairly reasonably priced dish that can feed a family for a couple of meals or just me for several.
In the past, I used just ground beef in my meatloaf, with a glaze of good old Heinz Ketchup. Sometime I made meatloaf from ground turkey (flavored very differently, of course). Lately, I have been loosely following the method demonstrated by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, a combo of beef and pork, with a “fancier” glaze, and it is very good.
In the old days (1950’s) “meatloaf mix” was a combo of beef, pork, and veal. As Kenji explains, veal contains a lot of collagen, which acts as a binder. He substitutes powdered gelatin for veal in his meatloaf mixes.
Today, I watched this video by Pasta Grammar for the Italian version of meatloaf – Polpettone, which is a stuffed meatloaf, and in this case it is all ground pork, but you could use all beef, or a mix, if you prefer. I’ve heard of it before, but never made it, although it looks intriguing.
I’m providing videos for both methods. Maybe I’ll try the Italian version some day!
Here is the method for making Polpettone (two versions):
Here is the link to the instructions for Polpettone, if you want to give it a try:
https://www.pastagrammar.com/post/polpettone-italian-stuffed-meatloaf-recipe
Next, the Kenji version:
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