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½ cup onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1½ cups ketchup

1 cup tomato sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

6 dashes Tabasco sauce

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

place the bread in a small bowl, pour the milk over the bread, and let soak for 5 minutes. Put the meat in a large mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients, including the milksoaked bread. Do not squeeze the moisture out of the bread because the milk actually helps tenderize the meat loaf.

using clean hands or a large spoon, stir the mixture together until the ingredients are thoroughly blended.

form the mixture into a loaf about 6 inches long and 3 inches wide and tall. Set aside while you mix the sauce ingredients, or cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

stir together all the sauce ingredients in the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker and set the meat loaf in the sauce. Spoon some of the sauce over the top of the meat loaf to coat it.

cook the meat loaf on high for 1 hour. Reduce the heat to low and cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of the meat loaf registers 165°F, 5 to 6 hours. Using two long, wide spatulas, remove the meat loaf from the slow cooker, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

season the sauce with salt and pepper. Cut the meat loaf into ½-inch-thick slices with a serrated knife. Serve with some of the sauce.

serves 6

Meatballs and Variations

Although we all associate meatballs with Italian cuisine, you hardly ever see them on a menu in Italy. They are more home cooking than ristorante fare. That being said, meatballs make a terrific slow-cooker meal and they can be made into smaller sizes for appetizers to serve a crowd. Either way, there are quite a few recipes for meatballs in this book that use various meats and flavors. The following meatball recipes are two that I’m quite fond of and use ground beef as the main ingredient. The meat loaf recipes also make terrific meatballs—just use a scoop to shape them and then put them into the sauce. You can either sauté meatballs to get a nice, crispy crust on the outside or you can just plop them in the sauce. Plopping the meatballs into the sauce without browning actually makes them even more tender and delicious when they are slow cooked. In order for the meatballs to cook evenly, use a small scoop to form them so that each ball has the same density. I have a variety of scoops just for this purpose.

Meatballs Italiano

Actually called polpette in Italian, these little gems are terrific to serve in your favorite tomato sauce with pasta. The fact that this makes a lot of sauce and meatballs gives you the option of serving this to a crowd (see savvy), or being able to freeze the leftovers for another meal. Mangia bene, as Grandma used to say!

SAUCE

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium onions, coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons dried oregano

3 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Four 28- to 32-ounce cans whole plum tomatoes, with their juice

MEAT BALLS

4 slices soft-crusted Italian bread, torn into pieces (about 1 cup)

2/3 cup milk

1 pound 85% lean ground beef

1 pound bulk Italian sweet pork sausage

1 pound lean ground pork

1 medium onion, finely chopped

¼ cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

3 eggs, beaten

1½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Vegetable oil for frying (optional)

heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, and oregano and sauté until the onions begin to soften.

transfer the mixture to the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker and stir in the sugar, salt, pepper, and tomatoes. cover and cook on high while making the meatballs.

put the bread and milk in a large mixing bowl and allow the bread to absorb the milk. When the bread has absorbed the milk, add the remaining ingredients. With clean hands or a large