Polish Meatloaf with Egg (Pieczeń rzymska z jajkiem)

Meatloaf is thought to date back to ancient Rome. Perhaps that is why Polish cooks refer to meatloaf stuffed with a hard-boiled eggs as a Roman Roast. Perhaps there is another story, and one of you will fill me in with the details for this Polish Meatloaf with Egg (Pieczeń rzymska z jajkiem).

As for me, I was taken with the visual image, the concentric circles of yellow and white inside the meatloaf. The egg adds such a nice boost of color to the usually brown meatloaf, and after all, we eat with our eyes first, and that’s why I’ve added carrot as well as onion, it makes a colorful orange confetti.

The hard-boiled eggs make this a popular dish for Easter, but it’s equally well suited to any Sunday or weeknight dinner. The usual advice is to make more than you need because you’ll want leftovers.

Serve it hot with mashed potatoes and gravy or use leftovers cold with bread and mustard for sandwiches.

My friend and I were talking recently about meatloaf, more specifically about meatloaf memories from our childhoods. I must confess that I was not a fan of meatloaf for the first half of my life.

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It often seemed dry to me, and I would have preferred ground beef in a cheeseburger or taco. But tastes change, I’ve really come to enjoy meatloaf and even leftover meatloaf. To make sure your meatloaf is delicious, here are some ideas to make sure it’s moist and ways you might want to personalize it.

Tips to keep your meatloaf moist:

• Don’t over mix the mixture and don’t press it into the pan, be gentle!
• Rather than dry breadcrumbs, use a torn up bread roll (or 2 – 3 slices of bread) soaked in milk. I think of this as Polish style, using bread instead of bread crumbs, but I am more likely to have bread crumbs in the kitchen than fresh bread.
• Use enough bread or bread crumbs (20% of total volume); they’ll hang onto the juices.
• Generally speaking, use an 80:20 mix of lean meat to fat.
• Add finely diced veggies that have been sautéed in butter or oil.
• Cook to an internal temperature of 160-165, no higher.
• Let it rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Variations

• While I’ve baked this in a loaf pan, you could bake in a larger batch in a bundt pan for a fancy presentation
• If you’re cutting back on red meat, try using ground turkey
• Mix up the veggies, try adding finely diced sautéed leeks, bell peppers, or celery
• Top with bacon slices

Whenever, however you serve it, I hope you’ll enjoy this Polish Meatloaf as much as we did!

Smacznego!

Lois

Polish Meatloaf with Egg (Pieczeń rzymska z jajkiem)

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• Author: polishhousewife
• Cook Time: 65 min
• Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
• Yield: serves 8
• Category: Meat
• Method: Bake
• Cuisine: Polish

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Description

A flavorful meatloaf stuffed with hardboiled eggs

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 large onion, finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 medium carrots, finely diced (about 3/4 cup)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3/4 pound ground beef (20% fat)
• 3/4 pound ground pork
• 3/4 cup dried bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground marjoram
• 1 egg, beaten
• butter and dried bread crumbs to prepare pan
• 4 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
• 2 tablespoons mustard (I used half Dijon and half whole grain)

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 F

Saute onion and carrot in butter, stirring the mix frequently, until onion is translucent, add garlic and cook 2 minutes more, cool

Add cooled veggies to ground meats, bread crumbs, milk, salt, pepper, marjoram, and beaten egg, gently combine without over mixing

Butter 8 x 4 loaf pan and sprinkle with dried bread crumbs, gently place half of the meat mixture in the pan, leaving a trough for the hard boiled eggs

Add hard boiled eggs to pan, placing them end to end, gently top with remaining meat mixture, without compressing, spread the top of the loaf with mustard

Pop the meatloaf in the oven, reduce heat to 350, bake for about 55 minutes, until internal temp is 160, let rest 10 minutes before removing from pan and slicing

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Lois Britton

An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com,  she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.