Underrated by Josh Abraham

I don’t normally read a lot of non-fiction, mainly because I read to escape reality……particularly these days, when the world around us seems to be going insane. But having discovered this pop culture gem, Underrated, while waiting at my dentist’s office, I changed my mind. Slightly.

Josh Abraham takes some of the most classic pundits of modern culture that everyone loves to hate – Good Times, Jay Mohr, diet Dr. Pepper, The Godfather III (and for that, I thank him heartily because I happen to think that movie was pretty all right – save the hate mail, please), and that classic American slab of comfort food known as meatloaf. And what could be more underrated than meatloaf?

I go back to my original statement about The Godfather III. HELLO! It’s still an amazing film. It’s Coppola, for God’s sake. He could film someone reading the history of ground beef and it would be amazing.  Abraham details why this film should not be given short shrift – for all the reasons I always thought! Lack of quotable lines combined with none of the old-school characters combined with Sofia Coppola…….who, IMHO, was not that bad, and thank God she wasn’t that great because then we wouldn’t have her directorial awesomeness in Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, or Marie Antoinette.

But the piece on meatloaf is what got me thinking. Goddammit, I LOVE meatloaf! It’s classic American fodder food and seriously, if you screw up meatloaf, you are beyond help.  Anyway, my deeply buried love for meatloaf reasserted itself after reading this book, and I decided that a nice loaf would be the perfect blog post. If you don’t like meatloaf, well, go order a pizza, then.

Ok, so meatloaf isn’t the most exciting of dishes. It’s also perhaps not the most aesthetically pleasing of foods, either. But this version, perfected after many variations and experiments, is really, really good. The key is using half pork sausage, which adds more flavor and keeps the ingredients moist, even after baking. Trust me!

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
7 baby carrots
1 celery stalk
1 red onion
6 cloves garlic
Tablespoon each of fresh thyme, fresh parsley and fresh oregano
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork sausage
3 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
2 eggs
1 heaping cup of Panko breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Teaspoon mustard
4 tablespoons tomato sauce

METHOD

Heat the oven to 375F. Melt the butter and olive oil in a large pan over medium heat on the stove. Finely chop the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and fresh herbs and add to the pan. Saute for 10-12 minutes.

In a separate bowl, add the two ground meats, the eggs and the Worchestershire sauce.

Pour over the breadcrumbs.

Let the vegetable mixture cool in the freezer for 15 minutes, then add to the eggs, breadcrumbs and meats.

Add the mustard and the tomato sauce to the mixture, and then mix everything together well, using your VERY clean hands. Pat into a loaf tin.

Bake for an hour. Let cool. Cram down your throat. It’s that good –  and totally underrated! If you want to go full-on retro, serve with peas and macaroni and cheese, the old-school kind from the box. Good stuff!