During the holidays, everyone brings to the table dishes tied to their family’s tradition.
For some, Easter is a savory pie with cheese, fried lamb, artichokes (many ways) and Genoese-style stuffed veal. For others, weather permitting, Easter Sunday is the first outdoor trip of the season, where the menu features foods that are easily transported.
Regardless of your family’s traditions, eggs are always on the Easter menu, all the better if they’re hard-boiled. They go well with anything and you can even hide them in a pie or meatloaf, just like we did.
Our Easter meatloaf, with its rich filling, is first browned in the pan and then baked in the oven, making it ideal for either a laid table indoors or a picnic blanket surrounded by nature on an outdoor spring picnic.
Meatloaf with hardboiled eggs
Serves: 4
400g minced beef
200g minced pork
1 egg
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 slice of bread, crust removed
40g milk
parsley
2 cloves of garlic
3 hard-boiled eggs
4 slices of mortadella without pistachios (about 50g)
flour, for dusting
vegetable stock
extra virgin olive oil
salt
black pepper
Method
Peel and dice a clove of garlic. Cut the bread into small cubes and soak in the milk. Wash the parsley leaves and chop with a knife. Put the minced meat, the egg, the Parmesan, the parsley and the minced garlic in a bowl and add the bread after you’ve squeezed out the excess milk. Season with salt and pepper and mix everything until combined (if necessary, knead with wet hands).
Spread the mixture onto a sheet of baking paper and flatten into a 1cm-thick rectangle. Arrange the slices of mortadella on top and place the hard-boiled eggs in the middle lengthwise. Using the baking paper to help you, roll up the meatloaf to enclose the eggs.
Dust the surface with flour. Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan-forced.
Heat some extra virgin olive oil into an oven-safe frying pan and add the other unpeeled clove of garlic. Transfer the meat loaf to the pan and brown on all sides, turning very gently. Add 1/2 cup of hot vegetable stock, partially evaporate and transfer the pan to the oven.
Cook for about 1 hour or until the meatloaf is golden, adding more hot stock if necessary.
When cooked, remove the meat and leave to cool to room temperature before slicing. Serve in slices with the cooking liquid and a green salad (or roast potatoes).
If there are any leftovers, take your meatloaf as a picnic lunch on your day in the countryside or trip out of town this Easter.
Recipe and pictures: @saramilletti
