This is Food Loaf. I made it last night for dinner. It was AMAZING! Now Food Loaf is made of what ever you can fit in a loaf pan. I posted a picture of it on facebook last night and people were asking for the recipe. Well, I didn’t have one, but I’m going to post what I can.
ALSO! There is NOTHING healthy about this type of Food Loaf, I’m sure I could make a healthy one but I didn’t!
Food Loaf (Italian Style):
1 jar Prego Italian Sausage and Garlic sauce (you can use more, I used one)
Foster Farm Turkey Meatballs (as many as you would like)
1 Bag of Pasta, (I used an Organic bagged pasta that I bought at Costco, I don’t remember the brand… THIS ISN’T WHAT THIS IS ABOUT!)
Half of a White Button Mushroom
Grated Cheese (LOTS OF CHEESE)
Boil your pasta until it is done.
Heat sauce in saucepan and throw in meatballs. cover and let simmer, but don’t burn your sauce. Stir occasionally to avoid burning.
Strain pasta. Spray two loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. Cover bottom of both pans with pasta, only one layer. not too much. Cover layer of pasta with layer of cheese (thick layers here, cheese is the binder).
The sauce should be done by now, use a toothpick to test the meatballs, if you can put a toothpick into the meatball without any resistance they are done. Layer meatballs and sauce as the second layer. I put three meatballs on this layer. NEXT, MORE CHEESE. Bryant assisted me in the cheese department, we bought a 5 pound block and we used a good portion of it.
Next, layer more noodles. Noodles are important. More cheese. Layer more sauce and meat balls (i put two balls of meat on this level). More cheese.
Pack as MANY noodles as you can on top of this level. This next part is extremely important… You’re going to put so much cheese on the top level that your arteries will clog at the very thought. No exposed noodles, no empty corners. just cheese. I even tucked cheese down the sides of the pan to make sure it wouldn’t melt over the edge of the pan and we would lose cheese. Cheese is basically what this food loaf is about…
If you haven’t preheated your oven, you probably should have. It should have been preheated to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. I probably should have told you that sooner.
Anyway, put both pans now filled with deliciousness, into the over. Now, we’ve already cooked the majority of our ingredients, so you may be wondering WHY we are putting them in the oven. TO MELT THE CHEESE! SO MUCH MELTY GOODNESS! It’s going to bind the pasta, sauce, and meatballs together. Don’t put it in for too long because you’ll burn it and then I will be disappointed.
About five minutes, or so. Just keep checking on it. When the cheese has a nice crust to it, not necessarily a dark crust, just a nice melted looking crust. The cheese will sweat if you use Tilamook cheese. Which I did, but it was the best. So use that cheese. And don’t get it pre-shredded, shred your own cheese!
So, after five minutes you’re going to have a delicious melty cheesy food loaf, Italian Style!
To properly remove your food loaf from the pan take two thick paper towels, layer them together. Take the loaf pan (which shouldn’t be hot because all we did was melt the cheese. Well it may be hot, depends on what you consider to be hot) by the little sides and flip the loaf onto the paper towels, Make sure you have a plate. The cheesy crust part will be on the bottom and that IS NOT where we want it. Grab the paper towel (if you used thick paper towels this won’t be a problem) and slowly place the paper towelled loaf on the plate. You’re going to have one chance at this, pull the long end of the paper towel and flip the food loaf onto the plate. BOOM! Food loaf! Let it settle and eat it.
We didn’t cut the first one, we just ate it right off the plate.
Now if you are looking around and you realize that you have one pan still full of food, you can put it aside go eat the first one and then come back to it later. Once it sets it will be a firm loaf. You can cut it into slices and make Food Loaf sandwiches. YUM YUM YUM!
You can wait with both loafs, but once you smell that melted cheese, you won’t want too!
This Success Dinner did put me into a food coma. So beware, but it was a happy food coma
The Half Ginger 