Tomato-Glazed Meat Loaves With Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

Oldie but goodie.

I’m a big meatloaf fan (Da guy and Da dish). I’ve also become really enamored of browned butter over the past few months.

Smitten Kitchen = No fail recipes.

So, here I made Deb Perelman’s mini meat loaves covered in a divine tomato glaze served atop rich brown buttered mashed potatoes. Hello Nirvana.

The new potatoes I used were fresh from my husband’s lovely garden. They had a slight pink hue, which is why my mash has a slight hue of the same.

Even if you are not a meat loaf fan, try these big “meatballs” and definitely get some Brown Buttered Mash into one of your dinners. That dish is quite incredible.

Tomato-Glazed Meat Loaves

Ingredients for the glaze:

4 teaspoons vegetable oil
¼ cup tomato paste
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Combine glaze ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes. Set aside.

Ingredients for the meat loaves:

2 slices sandwich bread, torn into quarters
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt, and more to taste
Black pepper, to taste
2 pounds ground beef
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350℉.

2. Place bread in a food processor and blend into breadcrumbs. Transfer breadcrumbs to a large bowl.

3. Pulse onion, garlic, celery and carrot in the processor until finely chopped.

4. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil and add the vegetable mixture, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes or until the vegetables begin to brown. Mix the vegetables into the breadcrumbs.

5. Add the meat, tomato paste, paprika, mustard and Worcestershire to vegetable mixture. Stir until thoroughly blended. With wet hands, form the mixture into about 12 (3 inch) mini meat loaves, each about 4 ounces.

6. In a 9 × 13 inch baking dish, space meatballs so that they are not touching. Brush each one with a teaspoon or so of the tomato glaze.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until loaves are cooked through. Serve with additional glaze over Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes.

Serves 6

Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes
8 Tbs unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 20 to 30 minutes until tender. Drain the potatoes and return them to the pan.

2. Brown the butter in a small saucepan: Melt the butter over medium-low heat. It will melt, foam, then turn clear golden before starting to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan. Watch carefully as the butter can go from browned to burnt very quickly.

3. Add browned butter, buttermilk, salt and pepper to taste to the potatoes. Mash until smooth.

Serves 6

Recipes from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman