Early in my marriage, I learned that my husband finds meatloaf unpalatable. Growing up, he despised ketchup, so now he will not eat anything with it. Even though there are different ways to make meatloaf sans ketchup, he refuses to eat it because of those childhood memories. I knew that he would like my meatloaf once he got around the name, so I completely renamed it.
At first, I called them “herbed meatballs” since meatballs share similar ingredients, but my children did not like the sound of that either. My delicious, ketchup-free meatloaf went uneaten until I named them “beef patties” and served them with roasted pepper cream sauce instead of ketchup. With this reinvented meatloaf, my family is happy whenever I make it.
Beef Patties With Roasted Pepper Cream Sauce
1.5 pound ground beef 1 pound ground pork 2 large eggs 1 cup plain bread crumbs 1 small onion, chopped 4 garlic cloves, chopped ¼ chopped fresh parsley ¼ chopped fresh sweet basil 2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground pepper ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together by hand until well combined. Shape into ¼ cup patties. Place patties on a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 15–18 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove from heat and serve immediately. Makes about 16–20 patties.
Note: I serve leftover patties as Italian burgers with mozzarella cheese the next day.
Roasted Pepper Cream Sauce
1 red bell pepper, roasted and peeled 4 roasted garlic cloves ½ cup whipping cream Salt to taste
Puree pepper and garlic cloves together in a small food processor until smooth. Transfer mixture to a saucepan and add cream. Cook until bubbly, turn down to simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt.
Makes about 1 ¼ cups.
