The beauty in the beast

TASTE: It sure is ugly, but what it lacks in looks, meatloafmakes up for in punchy flavour

I USUALLY RELISH the opportunity to do a bit of research aboutfood. Reading about the origins of a particular dish or the possiblehealth benefits of the ingredients are things I find interesting asa bona fide food nerd. But on this occasion, I have to say Icouldn't believe what little interest I had in my chosen subject,and I could barely bring myself to read about what must be theugliest dish in the world, as far as your eyes and ears areconcerned - meatloaf. Most of the entries on the internet wereaccompanied by the most hideous selection of meatloaf snapshots.It's fair to say my stomach turned. Which is all rather unfair. Yes,meatloaf is no beauty contestant, but it's humble appearance masks areally fantastic slice of flavour.

I can't remember the last time I actually ate meatloaf, andalthough it pops up now and again in a retro kitsch way on certainAmerican menus, it hasn't got a very nice ring to it. So off I wentin search of the best meatloaf recipe I could find. There were twocontenders: Skye Gyngell's veal and pork version in her latest book,How I Cook, and Pat Whelan's simpler beef and pork option in AnIrish Butcher Shop, a really lovely book for carnivores. I ended upcombining the best of both recipes and serving it up with a tweakedversion of the tomato sauce that was served with Skye's meatloaf. Ihave to say that Peaches and I looked at it baking away in the loaftin and we thought it looked like something you could never serve,at least not to friends and family that you were fond of. But itsmelled good and, when it came out of the oven, it tasted great,especially with a big dollop of that tomato sauce, which is now mynew favourite condiment for roast chicken and a plain green salad.And meatloaf, of course.

Secondly, for the vegetarians out there who may have been speed-reading the last paragraph or two, fear not. This vegetarian recipewas one that I am now fondly churning out mid-week. Please feel freeto substitute a blob of soft Irish goats' cheese (St Tola would bedelicious), or leave it out altogether. And remember that by soakingpuy lentils, even for 10 minutes, you will speed up your cookingtime significantly. The reason is that heat penetrates water fasterthan it does air, so by soaking the lentils you help them to becomedrenched inside, which means they cook faster than if you startcooking them straight out of the cupboard. They also count for oneof your five a day, which is an added bonus.

Meatloaf and crushed tomato sauce

We used a 23cmx13cm non-stick loaf tin

Serves 6-8

Olive oil

500g minced beef

500g minced pork

100g breadcrumbs

3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

150g Parmesan, grated

1 tbsp sundried tomato paste

Good pinch chilli flakes

1-2 tbsp chopped herbs: we used sage and thyme

Salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 190 degrees (gas mark five). Oil the loaf tin.Mix all the ingredients together. To take the guess work out of it,you should fry a little blob of the mixture, so you can taste it andadjust the seasoning. The Parmesan and sundried tomato paste arequite salty, but there's a kilogram of minced meat in there, so itdoes need to be seasoned. But if you're confident enough, just chuckin some salt and pepper, pour or rather push the meat into the loaftin, and then bake for about an hour. We covered it with foil at thebeginning, cooked it for about 40 minutes, and then removed the foilfor the last 20 minutes, so that it could brown on top. It stayedbeautifully moist even though it cooked for nearly an hour.

Cool slightly, turn out on to a platter, slice and serve with thesauce. I also let it cool down fully and heated up some leftoverslices with some extra grated Parmesan the next day, and it was justas good, if not better.

Crushed tomato sauce

500g cherry or vine tomatoes, approximately

80ml olive oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

Big bunch of finely chopped parsley

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

200g black olives, roughly chopped

Few splashes Tabasco

1 tsp caster sugar

Slice the tomatoes in half and scatter on a roasting tin. Drizzlewith a splash of olive oil. When the meatloaf is about 20 minutesaway from the end of its cooking time, bake the tomatoes untilslightly charring. Transfer to a bowl. Add in the rest of theingredients and mix well, but try not to break up the tomatoes toomuch. Taste, season and serve with the meatloaf.

Puy lentils with sundried tomatoes and Cashel Blue

Serves 4-6 as a generous main course

I used the dried sundried tomatoes but you can also use ones inoil. But then you need to reduce the olive oil in the recipeslightly and rinse the tomatoes and pat dry with kitchen paper, asthey tend to soak up and ooze too much oil.

500g puy lentils

2 red onions, peeled and very thinly sliced

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Pinch of caster sugar

80ml olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 big bunch coriander, roughly chopped

100g sundried tomatoes, thinly sliced

100-150g soft blue cheese, such as Cashel Blue

If you can soak the lentils for 10 minutes, do. Either way, rinsethem well and then cook in boiling, salted water until tender. Thiswill take anything from 15-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, marinate the red onions with the red wine vinegar,salt, pepper and sugar so that the onions "cold cook" in thevinegar.

When the lentils are cooked, drain, rinse until warm, and placein a bowl. Add the olive oil, garlic, herbs and sundried tomatoes,along with the onions and mix very well. Season and serve in bowlswith some blue cheese dotted on top.

See also itsa.ie

DOMINI'S DIGEST : Aloe Vera juice. One good splash with yourfavourite juice in the morning is said to help you detox. I have noidea how sound the science is, but it certainly makes me feelvirtuous (and that's half the battle)