Italian Layered Meat-and-potato Loaf With Roasted Tomatoes

Total Time: 1 hr 5 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 500 g potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 tablespoons milk
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 red chili pepper, chopped (deseeded or not, your choice)
• 1 clove garlic, peeled,and chopped
• 750 g minced beef or 750 g ground lamb or 750 g ground veal (preferably equal parts of the three)
• 3/4 cup breadcrumb
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
• 6 -8 spinach leaves, washed,dried,stems and tough bits removed
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 8 tomatoes (1 for each person being served)
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (1/2 clove for each tomato being prepared)
• olive oil, for drizzling
• salt, for sprinkling

Recipe

• 1 pre-heat oven to 200°c.
• 2 for the meatloaf:.
• 3 boil potatoes till tender; drain.
• 4 add milk and salt and pepper to taste; potatoes should still be pretty dry, but hold together enough to work with in a later step.
• 5 while the potatoes are boiling, add oil to a frying pan and saute the onion, pepper, and garlic till tender, but not brown (about 3-5 minutes); take off heat and allow to cool.
• 6 in a large bowl, combine the onion mix, minced meat, breadcrumbs, basil and egg; add salt and pepper to taste and mix very well (use your hands).
• 7 place half of the meat mixture in a baking dish, shaping it into a rather wide loaf with a flattened top (since you will be stacking the other ingredients above).
• 8 take half of the mashed potatoes, and make a level layer of them above the meat base (once again, hands work best).
• 9 cover the potato layer with the spinach leaves.
• 10 cover the spinach with the mozzarella, again making a level layer.
• 11 cover this with the remaining potatoes, once again leveling.
• 12 finish off with the remaining meat, molding and shaping it to not only cover the top, but down the sides as needed to keep the stacks together.
• 13 bake for 20 minutes, glaze the top with honey, and continue baking for 20 to 25 more minutes.
• 14 allow to rest 5 minutes before slicing.
• 15 for the tomatoes:.
• 16 just as you are placing the meatloaf in the oven, wash tomatoes, and slice in half horizontally.
• 17 remove the pips and juices with your fingers.
• 18 sprinkle the tomato cavities with salt, then turn them upside down on a paper towel (this will help remove extra juices which would tend to make them mushy when baking).
• 19 after fifteen minutes, place the tomato halves right side up on a non-stick baking sheet.
• 20 place the garlic slivers in the tomato cavities (at least two per cavity) and drizzle with olive oil (to taste, but i recommend about 1/2 tsp per tomato).
• 21 at the time that you glaze the meatloaf with the honey, place the tomatoes in the oven (thus, bake for 20-25 minutes).