A side of comfort, please!

I've always felt that a roast chicken, one of the ultimate comfort foods, demands the same of its side dish. Comfort food is like that. Meatloaf, the beefy side of comfort food, has its perfect match in mashed potatoes. Now I love the potato in all of its glorious forms, but my roast chicken, which I not so humbly submit as the best ever, has its natural partner in the sensually steaming bowl of polenta with mascarpone pictured above. The herb infused chicken, slightly smoky from the grill, and the creamy, rich, buttery polenta....if ever there was a match made in culinary heaven, this is it.

Now, on to the practical stuff. Most polenta recipes I read call for polenta in a roughly one-to-four cornmeal-to-liquid ratio. Usually the liquid called for is water, and inevitably the resulting polenta lacks flavor and richness. Cornmeal (and I use the Golden Pheasant brand) in and of itself isn't a terribly intensely flavored grain. It can be if you get freshly ground meal at your farmers market, but that is a luxury that for most of us isn't readily available. Which is why with my polenta, even though they call for the 1-to-4 cornmeal-to-water, I improve it immeasurably by substituting chicken stock for half the water. Try it, you'll be amazed. Of course the mascarpone and butter are optional, but if you have that option, why not exercise it?
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Polenta with Mascarpone

ingredients:
2 cups water
2 cups chicken stock
salt
1 cup polenta
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons mascarpone

method:
Bring water and stock to boil over high heat in a medium saucepan and add a large pinch of salt. Reduce heat to medium and slowly add polenta in a steady stream, stirring in to liquid with a whisk. Keep whisking until polenta has absorbed the liquid and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, add butter and two tablespoons mascarpone and stir to combine. Pour polenta into serving bowl. Dollop remaining tablespoon mascarpone on top and serve immediately.

Meatloaf: Not just (or even) a pretty picture.

It might taste good, but meatloaf is a tough photograph for an amateur like me. Last night's dinner was a perfect case in point. Still slogging through the Month of New Recipes, where for every meal at home we have to try something new. While I actually kind of enjoy it, I'm ready for some old favorites. About now it seems like January has gone on for about 90 days. I can only imagine how GWB feels. He's thinking about getting the hell out of Dodge and dumping the trainwreck that is America he drove off the tracks on his successor in less than a year, and I'll bet to him this last 11 months will seem like the about three years. For the rest of us, I can only hope it seems like 30 days.

But enough digression. The point is a photo, and meatloaf's tendency to look like something you shoveled out of your front yard. This recipe from the latest Gourmet really tasted good with all it's unusual ingredients....bacon, prunes, cider vinegar, allspice...and both w and I were suitably impressed, and satisfied. Not quite up to my all-time favorite, Alton Brown's Good Eats Meatloaf, but still well worth the effort. But man, my photos sucked. Even the photo from the magazine isn't that great. So disregard these visuals, and know that if you want a new twist on the common hunk of ground meat, this is well worth trying!

The Gourmet version, probably the 36th try.






My real world version. Looks sketchy, tastes great!






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Meatloaf with bacon & prunes
from Gourmet Magazine
makes 6 servings with leftovers

ingredients:
1 cup fine fresh bread crumbs (from 2 slices firm white sandwich bread)
1/3 cup whole milk
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium celery rib, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 lb bacon (about 4 slices), chopped
1/2 cup pitted prunes, chopped
1 1/2 lb ground beef chuck
1/2 lb ground pork (not lean)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Garnish: cooked bacon (optional)

method:

1-Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

2-Soak bread crumbs in milk in a large bowl.

3-Meanwhile, cook onion, garlic, celery, and carrot in butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Cover skillet and reduce heat to low, then cook until carrot is tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, allspice, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper. Add to bread-crumb mixture.

4-Finely chop bacon and prunes in a food processor, then add to onion mixture along with beef, pork, eggs, and parsley and mix together with your hands.

5-Pack mixture into a 9- by 5-inch oval loaf in a 13- by 9-inch shallow baking dish or pan.

Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meatloaf registers 155°F, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Cooks' note: Cooked meatloaf keeps, chilled, 3 days.
BB note: I thought the meatloaf was a little too moist, and didn't slice as cleanly as I would have liked. Next time I make it, I think I would not soak the bread crumbs in milk, and mix them in dry. The veggies, prunes, bacon fat, Worcestershire and cider vinegar to me add plenty of moisture.

A dinner party...yawn...with meatloaf??

Maybe that's what might cross your mind, especially when you're having five of your food loving friends over for dinner. Meatloaf. Isn't that something your mom cooked the hell out of when you were a kid? Not exactly haut cuisine, n'est pas? That why if I'm talkin' meatloaf, then you can bet your ass I'm upping the ante. Luckily I have in the food files a really awesome, fancy-schmancy stuffed meatloaf, a Mario Batali recipe that was in Food and Wine Magazine some time ago. This absolutely rocks, not only tasting great, but presents beautifully, the slices of meat showing off the spinach-prosciutto-provolone-carrot stuffing. Who wouldn't crave ground beef and pork with a little prosciutto? I mean really?! Add some sides of garlic mashed potatoes (where w's only instruction was "with lots of garlic!") and some bright Swiss chard from the Farmer's Market and you'll be set. Oh yeah, and maybe a bottle or five of good vino! This is a really easy recipe, that like I said, looks (and tastes) fantastic!
Assembling the meaty goodness before the rollup!
A done deal, ready for the table.

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Meat Loaf Stuffed with Prosciutto and Spinach
SERVES: 8
from F and W: This luxurious yet easy take on classic meat loaf gets stuffed with spinach, carrots, prosciutto and cheese. The vegetables can be leftovers, says Batali: "Just make sure they're cooked long enough to be very soft—if they're al dente, the meat loaf will tear when you slice it and wreck your day" Mild and tangy caciocavallo cheese, made in Italy from cow's milk, is excellent in the filling, but provolone is a fine substitute.

ingredients
* 2 large carrots, each cut lengthwise into 6 slices
* 4 cups spinach (3 ounces), thick stems discarded
* 2 pounds lean ground beef
* 2 pounds ground pork
* 2 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
* 2 cups freshly grated pecorino cheese (6 ounces)
* 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
* Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
* 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 10-12 thin slices of prosciutto (4 ounces)
* 10 1/8-inch-thick slices caciocavallo or provolone cheese
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 4 sprigs of rosemary
* 2 cups dry red wine
* 1-1/2 cup water

directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the carrots until tender, 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate. Add the spinach to the boiling water and cook just until wilted; drain well and add to the carrots.
2. In a large bowl, combine the beef with the pork, 2 cups of the bread crumbs, the pecorino, eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper; mix well with your hands.
3. Line a work surface with a 15-inch-long sheet of plastic wrap. In a bowl, mix the flour with the remaining 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. Sprinkle half of the crumb mixture all over the plastic wrap. Transfer half of the meat loaf mixture to the plastic and press it into a 12-by-10-inch rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Lay half of the spinach leaves over the meat, leaving a 1-inch border on the short sides. Arrange half of the carrots over the spinach, and top with half the prosciutto and sliced cheese. Starting from the long end of the plastic wrap closest to you, tightly roll up the meat loaf, tucking in the filling and using the plastic wrap to guide you; discard the plastic. Repeat with another 15-inch sheet of plastic and the remaining bread crumbs, meat mixture, spinach, carrots, prosciutto and cheese. Drizzle each meat loaf with 2 tablespoons of oil.
4. Put the rosemary sprigs in the bottom of a broiler pan and pour in the red wine. Cover with the broiler pan grate. Set the meat loaves about 2 inches apart on the grate. Bake in the center of the oven for 40 minutes. Turn the broiler pan around and pour the water through the grate. Continue baking for about 35 minutes longer, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of each meat loaf registers 155°.
5. Transfer the meat loaves to a carving board and cover loosely with foil. Discard any cheese from the bottom of the pan and strain the pan juices into a small saucepan. Boil the pan juices over high heat until reduced to 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Pour into a serving bowl and season with salt and pepper.
6. Using a serrated knife, slice the meat loaves 1 inch thick and serve, passing the pan juices at the table.
MAKE AHEAD: The unbaked meat loaves can be refrigerated overnight. Let return to room temperature before baking.