Christmas 1/ the meat recipe

- Grandma, I’d like to prepare a meatloaf as good as yours.
- I usually prepare meatloaf during the holidays, when there’s lots of us dining together
- And how do you prepare it?
- I take some minced meat, I roll it out on a table cloth, I add the vegetables, the eggs cut into slices and I roll it. I put a little oil and garlic in the pan and cook it. Once it is cooked, I wait for it to be cold, then I cut it and it is ready to be eaten!

This is the brief and concise description of a great traditional dish, as told by my grandmother. When on Christmas day we’re all sitting around the table, meatloaf makes everyone happy and we all agree, young and old. This recipe is born out of the desire to create a meatloaf for my restaurant, of giving value to the simplicity of a dish that is accessible to everyone, something you can enjoy especially in this Christmas season so full of parties.

Making future generations understand “tradition”, the memory of our past, is something that characterises us and makes us unique, of this I’m strongly convinced. This is why tradition needs to be safeguarded, especially today when the culinary scene is made so international. I need to add that my idea is to propose a classic traditional dish in a way that is suitable to contemporary cuisine and current needs.

In a restaurant, indeed, one cannot serve the classic granny-style meatloaf, at least not with the same shape and technique, as cooking has evolved. So I thought of a single-portion meatloaf, made with three different kinds of meat: beef, pork and chicken which in my opinion give the dish flavour, succulence, depth, and transform a poor and simple dish, that in the past was made with the meat that was available, into something much nobler. This is the continuity of flavours.

Meatloaf with fried egg and giudia-style artichoke

Recipe for 4 people

for the meatloaf
130 g minced pork
130 g minced chicken
130 g minced beef
1 slice of pork pancetta
1 egg
nutmeg
salt
pepper

for the filling

200 g wild chicory
4 slices of mortadella with pistachio
4 slices of fontina cheese

for the fried egg
4 eggs cooked at 68°C for 18 minutes
bread crumbs

for the artichokes
4 artichokes
1 vacuum pack
liquorish
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil

Method
for the meatloaf

In a bowl, mix all the meat, the egg, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, prepare a not too soft mixture using, if necessary, some bread crumbs.

for the filling
In a pan, fry the chicory with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, chilli pepper and salt (then leave to cool).

Composing the meatloaf
Roll out the meat (about 115/125 gr per portion) onto a sheet of cling film. Roll the mortadella, the fontina and some chicory on the meat, make a roll with the help of the cling film. Repeat the procedure for each portion. Leave it to rest for half an hour in the fridge. Remove the cling film and cook the meat in the oven at 200/220°C for 12/15 brushing it with some oil.

for the eggs
In a saucepan, bring some water to 68°C, plunge the eggs inside and put everything into the oven at the same temperature for 18 minutes. Remove the eggs and chill them in the fridge for at least an hour. After that, remove the eggshells, bread the eggs and fry them in lots of oil.

for the artichoke
Put the clean artichokes into a vacuum pack with a pinch of liquorish, some salt and extra virgin olive oil. Close the pack and cook in water at 90°C for 45 minutes. Remove from the pack and deep-fry.