It’s Victor’s Birthday. His traditional birthday dinner is Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, and Peas. It’s what he likes, it’s what he gets.

Most of the time, I’ve just made my traditional meatloaf, but now and again, I’ve given it a twist. I made a Not So Basic Meatloaf 4 years ago, a Rustic French Meatloaf back in 2010 that had chicken livers, prunes, and pistachios in it – really really good and I’ve never made it, again… and even a Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf back in 2009 that was a heart attack waiting to happen.

Most of the time, though, it’s been the basic.

Today, I decided to go Italian. We had seen a stuffed meatloaf made on one of the cooking shows and were intrigued because it was rolled and then cooked in the parchment paper. Neither of us could remember the show but it called for spinach, prosciutto, cheese, and hard boiled eggs.

I went to Chef Google but didn’t quite find what I was looking for, but I got an Italian name and saw some basic steps to put it together.

I used a 50/50 beef blend of brisket and sirloin and a pound of mild Italian sausage.

Polpettone Ripieno Uova E Spinaci

Meatloaf Stuffed with Spinach and Eggs

Meatloaf

  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 1 lb Italian sausage
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1 1/2 cups grated pecorino cheese
  • 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs
  • garlic powder
  • salt
  • pepper

Filling

  • 12 oz chopped spinach
  • 4 oz prosciutto
  • 4 oz shredded cheese
  • 6 hard cooked eggs

Directions

Place beef and sausage in a large bowl. Add wine and break up and mix well. Add cheese and slowly add breadcrumbs. Add eggs and garlic powder, salt, and pepper, to taste. Mix everything well.

Place beef mixture on a sheet of parchment paper and form a rectangle. Cover with another sheet of parchment and roll even with a rolling pin.

Squeeze spinach dry and add a layer of spinach on the beef – keeping the borders clear.

Lay out prosciutto over spinach.

Sprinkle with cheese and then lay the eggs end-to-end along the top.

Using the parchment as a guide, roll into a cylinder, enclosing the entire filling. Crimp bottom and ends as best you can.

Roll tightly in parchment and twist end to completely seal.

Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for about an hour.

Let rest at least 20 minutes before slicing.

It came out stellar!

A couple of things I learned… I should have left a bit more room at the long edges to encase everything completely. The eggs weren’t centered. Not a horrible faux pas, but…

The second thing is to let it set – wrapped – for about 20 minutes. I started unwrapping it as soon as it came out and had to quickly rewrap. That’s probably because it wasn’t fully sealed on what became the top as I put it together.

And… It’s huge. 3/4 of this is going into the freezer for when we get back from California.

But the flavors were great. That’s what’s important!