Pork Meat Loaf

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I was surfing channels on TV one day and stopped when I saw Jaime Oliver was on.  You see, I like the way Jaime Oliver does his cooking, he makes it look very easy.  He was doing a Pork Meat Loaf which really got me interested.  After watching the show, I figured I could do his Pork Meat Loaf and googled the recipe and found it HERE.  I was thinking of doing it as a dinner surprise for the family.  Boy was I disappointed, I did not have some of the ingredients in my pantry.  So what did I do?  Improvise!   Might as well come up with something along the same lines.

One of the ingredients unfamiliar to me was tomato passata.  It looked like a tomato sauce or puree and I did some research.  It appears that passata is an uncooked tomato puree that has been strained of seeds and skins. It originated in Italy but used throughout Europe.  Big problem, I don’t have it.  Checking my pantry, I saw an Italian Style Spaghetti sauce.  I figured might a well use it as a substitute.  Another ingredient that I did not have was feta cheese.  No problem, I used cream cheese.  The recipe also called for stale bread blitzed into crumbs.  None.  But I did have packaged bread crumbs so I figured this will do.  The recipe also called for chilis but knowing my family, they will not like it. I replaced them with red bell peppers.  The meatloaf was supposed to be served as a topping on spaghetti.  None also, so rice will have to do.

Ingredients:

• 3 pcs carrots
• 3tbsp tbsp olive oil
• 1 package bread crumbs
• 1 Kg ground pork
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 60 grams cream cheese diced into small pieces
• 1 pc egg
• 3 pcs red bell peppers sliced lengthwise
• 2 pcs onion finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 package 250g Del Monte Italian Style Spaghetti sauce
• 60 grams Cheddar cheese grated

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF.
2. Peel the carrots, quarter lengthways, then place in a roasting tray (roughly 25cm x 30cm), drizzle with oil and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Use your hands to mix in a bowl the pork, breadcrumbs, half the oregano, the cream cheese, the egg and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper.
4. Shape into a loaf (roughly 20cm long), then, when the time’s up on the carrots, make a space in the middle of the tray and add the meatloaf. Cook for a further 25 minutes, or until the meatloaf is golden and cooked through.
5. In a pan, heat oil and then put the onion and garlic with the remaining oregano and fry for about 10 minutes, or until softened, stirring regularly. Add the bell peppers and cook for 1 minute.
6. Pour in the spaghetti sauce and let simmer until the meatloaf is cooked.
7. Remove the tray from the oven and carefully pour the sauce around the meatloaf. Pull the carrots to the top of the sauce and arrange around the meatloaf with the red bell pepperss, then grate the Cheddar on top.
8. Put back the meatloaf into the oven for a further 5 to 10 minutes, or until golden, and the sauce is bubbling.
9. Once done, slice the meatloaf and use as topping for rice.

This goes well with Greek Salad or Buttered Steamed Vegetables.

There you go folks.  My family loved this Pork Meat Loaf dish and I hope you try it out too.  Not as good as Jaime Oliver’s but worth the time and effort to try.

Check out other recipes HERE.