Grilled Meatloaf Paninis
So last week I was left very pleased with a Dr Pepper-glazed planked meatloaf I had grilled up, but it still didn't move meatloaf up into a more loving spot in my heart. Don't get me wrong, I like meatloaf, it's just never something that excites me or that I consider turning to on a regular basis. Having that mindset, it also doesn't help that meatloaf leaves a lot of leftovers, but this time around I decided that to up my desire to keep eating that loaf, I'd try making it into sandwiches, and with that, this grilled meatloaf panini has finally bumped meatloaf up into something I would want to make again and again.
While my meatloaf recipes are well seasoned and flavorful, they just never hit the intensity I'm personally drawn too. Turning meatloaf into a sandwich afforded me the ability to up the flavor game and build up the broad compliments and contrasts that would make each bite even more savory. I began with caramelized onions, which I had a stash of in the freezer after making a large batch when working on a recipe for roast beef toasts. The glaze on the meatloaf was already plenty sweet, but I didn't think that would come through fully in sandwich form and deemed some added sweetness was going to be called for.
Then to contrast the sweet, I needed spicy, and for that I turned to chipotle mayonnaise. In the early days of blogging, chipotle mayo was all the rage, but that has fizzled out a bit and I haven't actually made it in many years. The high heat of the chipotles, along with their smokiness, felt like it was going to be right match for the meatloaf though, so this sauce got to make a longer awaited reappearance on this site.
Making the onions and chipotle mayo is the bulk of the prep here, so with those done, it was time to bust out the meatloaf and get grilling. The chill on the meatloaf made it easy to slice, of which I initially cut the standard roughly one inch thick pieces. I noticed that was going to me a pretty small, but tall panini, that might be awkward to eat. I also worried the pressing of the sandwich would mash the loaf too much, so I decided to split those larger slices in two, which made for a much better sandwich size with two thinner slices comprising each panini.
I didn't think the panini pressing time was going to be adequate to completelty reheat the meatloaf, so before sandwich assembly, I quickly grilled the meatloaf slices over direct high heat. I was mainly looking to take the chill off, so once the slices felt warmed and developed some grill marks, I deemed them ready for the panini making.
To assemble, I began by spreading a healthy layer of mayo on each side of the bread. Then I laid two slices of the meatloaf on each bottom half, followed by a couple slices of a gouda cheese, caramelized onions, and a handful of arugula.
While I was grilling the meatloaf and putting together the sandwiches, I had my two cast iron presses warming over direct heat on the grill. When it came time for pressing the sandwiches, they were well heated, but not scorching hot, which was exactly what I was after. I placed the sandwiches on the cool side of my two-zone fire, and then placed the presses on top, handling them while wearing my welding gloves and pressing down firmly to get a good start on sandwich compression. I then covered the grill and let the paninis cook until I saw the cheese was melted and they had flattened a bit further, which took about five minutes.
I didn't have the highest hopes for these sandwiches—going into this recipe I kind of thought I'd be left wishing I had a well seared burger in there instead of the meatloaf, but that feeling never came to fruition. Instead, the meatloaf felt like just the right thing in these panini, offering a hearty filling with a light earthiness and sweetness whose more mild manner was boosted by the spicy mayo, sweet onions, peppery arugula, and creamy cheese. I breathed new life into that meatloaf, and I could see myself wanting this sandwich over and over again. My overall lackluster feeling of meatloaf has also led me never to order a meatloaf sandwich before, but after trying this one, I'm intrigued by what other possibilities this American mainstay has to offer, so might start branching out and embracing the loaf more than I have in the past.
