Name: The Best Pizza Meatloaf
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1 egg; 1/2 cup milk; 5 ounces package seasoned croutons; 1 pound Italian sausage; 1/2 pound ground pork; 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese; 1 can pizza sauce (divided); 1 cup mozzarella cheese; 1/2 cup mini pepperoni

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We love pizza and meatloaf, so we’ve been working to perfect the Best Pizza Meatloaf! Everyone in our family loves this meal because the meat is so tender, the sauce keeps the meatloaves moist and the cheese and pepperoni add great flavor! #pizzaparty #meatloaf

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This post is sponsored by Indiana Pork, but all opinions are my own!

If you enjoy this recipe you may also enjoy our Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf!

Moist and Tender Meatloaf

We love pizza! We also enjoy the flavors of pork, so we knew that mixing Italian sausage and ground pork would be perfect for our pizza meatloaf.

Sausage is a winning meal ingredient in our house because it is so easy for the kids to chew. Kids often have trouble chewing and eating big pieces of meat. Grinding meat is actually a way to help tenderize it. Thus ground meat is often easier for everyone in our family to enjoy.

Minimum cooking times and temperatures can really affect how tender meat is and how easy it is to chew. I always reference the USDA Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart when I have a food safety question. Ground meat like sausage and ground pork used in this recipe need to be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 º Fahrenheit. Cooking the meat very much past 160 ºF can dry it out.

I have an economical, yet reliable digital meat thermometer that I use to ensure that my meat is properly cooked.

Food Safety in the Kitchen

As I get out and about doing cooking demonstrations or talking to people about cooking I enjoy hearing the questions on people’s minds. Food safety is a common point of discussion. Including how to know when meat is properly cooked.

As I said above, a meat thermometer is a secret ingredient to success and safety in my kitchen. Hand washing, avoiding cross-contamination and keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot are things that I am continuously thinking about in the kitchen.

Food Safety on the Farm

When people hear that I live on a farm sometimes they have questions about food safety on the farm. Producing safe food is one of the tasks that many farmers I know take great pride in.

My husband actually worked at a feed mill on a large farm before we got married. I wrote Large Farm and Small Farm Comparison – Making Animal Feed and We Take Pride in Feeding 4-H Animals that share more details about pig feed.

While working at Cooper Farms on the Indiana and Ohio state line, he was responsible to help develop and implement a very extensive program to increase the safety of the animal feed. The program is called Safe Food Safe Feed. The end goal of this program is to improve the traceability of everything that is fed to the animals. Safe Food Safe Feed is another checkpoint that all Food and Drug Administration rules are being followed and works to eliminate any potential outside contaminations to animal food.

All of this time, effort and expense is invested in delivering safe pork to all of us. This is just another example of how farms support the We Care Ethical Principles.

So it’s good to know that there is a lot of thought and work that goes into food safety before we pick-up our groceries at the grocery store. This makes my meals taste even better!

Here are a few of my family’s favorite meals featuring pork:

We hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do!

Printable Recipe for the Best Pizza Meatloaf