Recipe: Mini Meatloaves

Even if you’re not a fan of cold weather, you gotta love the comfort foods ushered in by lower temps.

As the evening mercury dipped into the teens this past weekend, we broke out an all-time family-favourite recipe--mini meatloaves!

We thought we’d share the recipe with you, including a few secret ingredients from TOMME that make this dish stand head and shoulders above its cafeteria brethren.

Y R U So Smol?

So why do we go to the trouble of making a gaggle of mini meatloaves rather than one big loaf? The deliciously crispy crust!

The little loaves are baked on a rimmed baking sheet. This lets everyone get their own meat loaf (or two) and a generous share of crispy crust.

But don’t they dry out? We include ground pork which leaves the meatloaves delectably moist on the inside.

Vraiment Québécois

In the past, we’ve made this recipe with a collection of spices added individually to the ground meat. We did something different this time, using Nordic Spice Salt straight off the shelf at TOMME.

Blended by the experts at Épices de Cru in Montreal’s Jean-Talon Market, this all-in-one spiced salt is stunningly good in this recipe. It’s a unique taste of Quebec, including salt from the Saint Lawrence River estuary, Boreal forest spices, wild porcini mushrooms from the Gaspé, and even a touch of maple sugar.

More Umami

Of course we added cheese, rounding out the flavour and adding a little more mouthwatering umami flavour by incorporating Parmigiano Reggiano. The Parm we carry is from a small producer in the village of Ozzola in Parma, Italy and the flavour is unbelievably complex and delicious.

Glaze It Up

The final touch is essential to making these meatloaves stand apart—a thick and slick layer of good-quality ketchup. Once again, we raided the shelves at TOMME, brushing each mini meatloaf with Ketchup from The Ketchup Project.

Mini Meatloaves

½ large white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
600 g ground beef
600 g ground pork
2 slices of bread, torn into very small pieces
1 egg
35 g (1/2 c) Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
2 tsp Nordic Spice Salt
1 tsp kosher salt
ketchup from The Ketchup Project to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).
2. Heat olive oil in frying pan over medium heat, add onion and sauté until soft, about 5 min. Add garlic to onions, sauté for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and cool for 5 min.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add onion mixture, beef, pork, bread, egg, Parmigiano Reggiano, Nordic Spice Salt, and kosher salt. Mix ingredients thoroughly without compacting too much.
4. Form the meat mixture into mini meatloaf shapes of about 150 g each and place on a rimmed baking sheet.
5. Bake mini meatloaves for 25 minutes, ensuring they reach an internal temperature of 165 F (74 C). Brush each loaf with a generous layer of ketchup and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Tips

• Line your baking sheet with either parchment paper or aluminum foil to make clean up easier.
• It’s practically the law that you must serve these with buttery mashed potatoes.