Catherine Love~ Ramblings from my Heart and Home

Tomato Gravy

I posted about making Turkey Meatloaf with Tomato Gravy a while ago, and a fellow blogger left a comment asking for the recipe.  Well......if you read my blog, you know I'm forever having "Kitchen Adventures" and experimenting with recipes; and technically the above was just an idea for one of my adventures, using ground turkey and my own diced tomatoes and homemade sauce.  I do have a link for a real recipe for Tomato Gravy at Hillbilly Housewife though! 

Back to the Turkey Meatloaf, I have found that I prefer ground turkey over ground beef in most things.  For one thing, I'm a wimp and can't stand to get a bite with that icky gristly stuff in it .  It's also much cheaper to purchase here.  I've yet to try the ground turkey for meatloaf though.   I don't have a recipe for the meatloaf with tomato gravy; but try to follow the method my husband's grandmother used, because he loves it so much. 

Here are instructions for Grandma's Meatloaf with "Tomato Gravy"

1 lb ground beef (turkey)

1 egg

1/2 sleeve saltine crackers crushed (or dry bread crumbs)

diced onion, bell pepper and mushrooms (to taste)

garlic powder, salt, and LOTS of black pepper or cayenne (to taste though Grandma made everything HOT)

1 small can tomato paste (optional)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato sauce

Mix together egg, cracker crumbs and spices in a small bowl.  Add this to the ground meat, and diced veggies.  Coat the bottom of a baking dish (we use Grandma's club aluminum bean pot) with oil.  Form meat into a round "loaf" and place in pan.  "Ice" top of meatloaf with tomato paste, sort of like icing a cake; just a thin layer, and sometimes I leave this out.  Drain juice from diced tomatoes around the outside edge of meatloaf and place the tomatoes on top of the meatloaf.  Place tomato sauce around the outside of meatloaf.  Add about 1/2 cup of water or so also.  Lightly stir the juice, sauce, and water together just a bit.  You can also add a bit of salt pepper and garlic to the "gravy" if you like.  Bake in a 350 degree oven about one hour or until done. Watch to see if you need to add additional water to the "gravy" as it cooks- that will depend on the amount of fat in your ground meat.  Turkey will probably require more water... The juices from the meatloaf will mix with the tomato mixture to form a delicious "gravy" to serve over mashed potatoes.  For the tomato  and meatloaf lover, this is a heavenly meal.  I'm not much of a meat eater, so I usually have a tiny amount of meatloaf, and lots of potatoes and tomato gravy . 

Untitled Comment

11:34 AM, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 .. Posted by kissesmomof4

It is funny that you like the turkey instead of beef because of the gristly bites. My husband says the opposite. Although my husband and I both agree that turkey sausage is much better because you do not get those little bone fragments you get in the regular italian sausage. Thank you for sharing your recipe.