Pizza at Home - Mom's Meatloaf Pizza

It has been a bit of a crazy week! More on that in a future post, but we certainly can't forget about Pizza Day! It's tradition! 

One of the fun things about being home in Colorado is getting to eat all the classic meals that I grew up eating. One of those is meatloaf, and I figured, why not try to take it and turn it into a pizza! We'll see how it turns out!

There's a few foods that I really only like the way that I'm used to eating it, and I don't order it anywhere else. There's the way Mom made it (the tasty way), and the way everyone else makes it (the weird way). Meat Loaf is one of those things. When I think of meat loaf, I think of how my Mom always makes it, and if it doesn't taste like that, I'm a little disappointed. 

For dinner the night before, Mom made her meat loaf, using the recipe she's used since the late 70s (she thinks). This might have been clipped out of a magazine or something from back then, and here it is, still in her recipe cards. 

This special meat loaf is very simple with no veggies (possibly why I liked it so much). It's just ground beef, an egg, breadcrumbs, milk, salt, pepper, and the special ingredient, Heinz 57 sauce. Leftovers are always delicious as a sandwich, but I asked to save some for my special pizza. 

I decided to just wing it tonight, not following any particular recipe, if there even is one for meatloaf pizza. I figure with meatloaf usually you have a side dish, probably potatoes. My pizza is going to incorporate potato too. To start I'm going to render the fat out of some bacon, but don't worry, that bacon won't be going to waste. Bacon never goes to waste. 

I poured the bacon drippings over the sliced potatoes, and used the pan again to heat up some butter and garlic. 

Then I added the bacon grease and sliced potatoes, along with a little salt and cooked everything a little longer. 

Heinz 57 is the special ingredient in Mom's meatloaf, so it's going to make an appearance in the sauce today too. It's about 1/2 Heinz 57 and 1/2 my regular homemade tomato sauce. Tomato ketchup is a pretty normal topping on meatloaf too. 

And then on top goes my potatoes and garlic. 

Looking good, looking good. 

Then some mozzarella cheese on top of that. 

And finally some leftover meatloaf from the night before. 

Since the meatloaf was already cooked, I baked the pizza for 6 minutes without the meatloaf, removed it from the oven, did all my toppings, and then went for another 6 minutes. On top is a Heinz 57 drizzle.

Joining us for dinner tonight is my brother Patrick, who also grew up eating this meat loaf recipe. It's been a while since he's had it, and he's excited to try it on a pizza. 

Mom's Meatloaf Pizza with bacon, garlic butter potatoes, and a Heinz 57 drizzle. 

Because I was using her meatloaf for the first pizza, I gave my Mom her choice of the second pizza. She said she liked Hawaiian, so that second pizza is made with pineapple, cubed ham, and the bacon I made earlier. 

My plate tonight!

The general consensus around the room was that this was a really good representation of meatloaf on a pizza. Patrick said it tasted just like he remembered it. Mom and Dad were impressed, and I thought it was good too. Of course not everyone can be happy. Ian just thought it was weird. Alli agreed. Theresa wanted a ketchup topping instead of Heinz 57. Still, it was fun to try something different!

And Alli loves the "free breadstick" dipped in honey at the end.