Recipe Title: Ricotta & Pesto Meat Loaf
Recipe Link: http://www.celiac.com/articles/859/1/Ricotta--Pesto-Meat-Loaf-Gluten-Free/Page1.html
Status: Vetoed
Jen's Notes: From the cooking side of things, this was a pretty simple recipe. I made the pesto first, using this recipe. Beat the egg in a separate bowl, then dump turkey, pesto, ricotta and egg together.
Problem #1: The mixture felt very wet to me. I've made a lot of meatloaves in my time, so I have a pretty good idea for the consistency that you need. I remedied this problem by adding about a half cup of brown rice breadcrumbs to the mixture. You could also add some gluten-free oats, if you prefer.
Problem #2: The meat mixture came out green. When you add a strong color like green to turkey (white) and ricotta (white), there's not much there to tone down the green color. Admittedly, this is just a visual complaint. But I found it a bit disconcerting to eat green meat. When I pulled it out of the oven, the green effect had toned down some but the final product was still a light green.
Problem #3: This one is the deal breaker. In spite of having ingredients like basil and ricotta, which are very flavorful ingredients, this turned out very bland. I think the parmesan/romano toned down the flavor of the basil enough that it didn't get to really stand out like it should have. You could try using a different cheese (mozzarella, maybe?) or cutting the parmesan.
However, I think this recipe has seen its last day in my kitchen. I'm all for "fixing" a recipe, but there's gotta be something worth working with in the first place. Unfortunately, I cannot say that about this recipe. Normally, we save the leftovers to eat the next day for dinner so that I don't have to cook every day. These leftovers went down the garbage disposal.
After the relative kitchen failures we've had this week, I've decided to give poor hubby's taste buds a break and make quiche for dinner tonight, so the chicken that was originally on the menu for this week is getting bumped to next week. I'm thinking of trying some GF baking this weekend, though, so be sure and check back for that.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Start to Finish: 1 hour, 30 minutes
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