Jamie Oliver Meatloaf Recipe - Delish Sides (2024)

FAQs

What does Ina Garten serve with meatloaf? ›

Ina says her meatloaf serves 6 people, but I think it can easily serve up to 8 if you're enjoying it with a couple of sides like mashed potatoes and green beans.

Pick the herb leaves, finely chop half of them and add to the veg pan, saving the rest for later. Leave the veg to cool completely, then tear in the mozzarella and add the breadcrumbs, minced meat, mustard, eggs, and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Scrunch and mix well, then shape into a loaf.

Milk and other dairy products, like heavy cream and buttermilk, contain both water and fat, adding two types of moisture to our meatloaf. There's a long-held theory that milk can tenderize ground meat, and this is the reason often cited for cooking ground meat in milk to make a Bolognese-style ragù.

In meatloaf, this is most commonly the eggs and breadcrumbs. Your binding ingredient is only second to the meat itself in your recipe and the reason why meatloaf crumbles. When this happens, it's because you didn't use enough. Next time, try adding in an extra egg and/or some more breadcrumbs.

Sure, egg yolks add some rich flavor to a meatloaf, but the real reason we need eggs is for structure—to help bind the meatloaf together. This is especially important since we're making a free-form meatloaf, or one that you shape by hand, versus using a loaf pan.

The Basic Meatloaf Formula

All recipes for meatloaf start with the same basic formula: 2 pounds of ground meat and a “panade” made of bread or crackers soaked in milk. Along with a few eggs, this panade helps to hold the ground meat together and adds some essential moisture to the mix.

By free-forming a meatloaf—not cooking it in a loaf pan—we get maximum surface area exposure, and therefore maximum flavor. So not only does it make it easier to slice and guard against sogginess, but mounding your meatloaf instead of panning it also makes your meatloaf literally tastier.

Instead of greasing your pan with spray, butter, or olive oil which can all lead to a meatloaf that may look a little greasier, or adding aluminum foil on top to get that even heat distribution, parchment paper distributes the heat equally throughout the pan without sacrificing taste or texture.

What is Ina Garten's favorite meal? ›

The one meal Ina simply couldn't live without is roast chicken. She even cites it as one of the reasons her husband, Jeffrey, proposed marriage in 1968.

A classic, flavorfully glazed ham like this would pair well with many classic sides, like melt-in-your-mouth roasted potatoes, a simple spinach salad, cheesy creamed spinach or mustardy roasted carrots.