Il Cucinologo
EN

Stuffed Meatloaf with Cooked Ham and Cheese Slices

17/11/2023

The stuffed meatloaf with cooked ham and cheese slices is a very flavorful and popular second course. Here’s how to prepare it.

Ingredients

  • 500 g ground meat (you can use beef or a mix of beef and pork)
  • 100 g cooked ham
  • 100 g cheese slices
  • 1 egg
  • 50 g breadcrumbs
  • 50 ml milk
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Chopped parsley to taste
  • A pinch of nutmeg (optional)

Preparation

  1. Start by soaking the breadcrumbs in the milk for a few minutes until softened.
  2. Finely chop the onion and garlic, and sauté them in a pan with a drizzle of oil until they become translucent.
  3. In a large bowl, place the ground meat, add the egg, the previously soaked breadcrumbs, the onion and garlic sauté, the chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg if desired.
  4. Knead all the ingredients well until the mixture is homogeneous.
  5. Spread the meat mixture on a sheet of parchment paper to form a rectangle about 1-1.5 cm thick.
  6. Arrange the slices of cooked ham and cheese slices on the meat rectangle, leaving a free border of about 2 cm on all sides.
  7. Using the parchment paper, roll the meat onto itself to form the meatloaf, sealing the edges well.
  8. Gently transfer the meatloaf to a baking dish, brush it with a little oil, and bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 50-60 minutes or until the surface is golden and the meat is fully cooked in the center.
  9. Let it rest for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

Trivia

The meatloaf is a very versatile dish that accepts numerous variations; for example, you can enrich the filling with vegetables like spinach or artichokes, or try a “Mediterranean-style” version by adding chopped olives and sun-dried tomatoes to the mixture. Also, if you have leftovers, it’s excellent the next day too, perhaps reheated and served with a fresh salad. Its name probably derives from the fact that it is a large meatball, that is, a preparation of ground meat shaped like a ball, except that in the case of the meatloaf, as the suffix “-one” suggests, it is a large meatball, flattened and baked in the oven.