Name: Italian Sausage Meatloaf
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 5 min
Total time: 1 h 25 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 15 ml olive oil; 1 piece onion; 1 piece carrot; 1 piece celery; 2 cloves garlic; 450 g ground beef; 450 g italian sausage; 120 ml breadcrumb; 60 ml whole milk; 1 piece egg; 1 tsp salt; 0.5 tsp black pepper; 60 ml ketchup; 30 ml brown sugar; 15 ml apple cider vinegar

UntrainedChef

Tips from the kitchen

Let those cooked vegetables cool before they go into the meat. If they're still hot they'll start cooking the beef and sausage in the bowl, and you want everything raw until it hits the oven.
Mix with your hands and stop the second everything looks combined. Overworking it presses out the fat from the sausage and you end up with a dense, springy loaf.
Don't skip lining the sheet with parchment. The sausage throws off a lot of fat and the glaze drips, so cleanup is a nightmare without it.
Pull it when the center hits 71°C, not by the clock. Ovens run differently and a thermometer in the thickest part is the only honest way to know.
That 10 minute rest is doing real work. Slice too soon and the loaf crumbles and leaks juice all over the board. Give it the time.

Ways to vary it

Use hot Italian sausage instead of sweet if you like a bit of heat coming through the glaze.
Swap the ground beef for ground turkey or pork. Pork keeps it moist, turkey makes it lighter, both work fine with the sausage doing the heavy lifting.
Stir a couple spoonfuls of grated Parmesan into the meat mix for a saltier, more savory bite.

Storage & leftovers

Wrapped tight, leftovers keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. It freezes well too, either whole or in slices, for up to 3 months. Reheat slices covered in a low oven or with a splash of water in the microwave so they don't dry out.