Forget the Ketchup Glaze: This Is How Italians Make Meatloaf

In America, meatloaf comes with a loaf pan and a sticky ketchup glaze. In Italy it’s called polpettone, literally “big meatball,” and it’s a Sunday-lunch fixture: shaped by hand, roasted until browned, sometimes hiding a seam of ham and melted cheese inside. Bread keeps it tender, pecorino makes it savory, and potatoes roast right beside it, soaking up every drop of juice. Here are four ways Italian home cooks make it, including two you probably wouldn’t expect.

Meatloaf is the classic polpettone, made with beef and sausage bound together with bread, pecorino, and eggs. Slow roasting gives it a deep brown crust and a soft, juicy center, while the potatoes and shallots in the same pan turn golden in the drippings. It’s the version any Italian family would recognize on sight, and the place to start if you’ve only ever had the American kind.

Pro tip: water or plant-based milk works just as well as cow’s milk for soaking the bread. Leftover slices can become mondeghili, the Milanese meatballs traditionally made with yesterday’s meat.

Stuffed meatloaf hides ham and provolone at its heart, so every slice reveals a ribbon of melted cheese. The pork and beef mixture skips the bread entirely and gets its flavor from aged cheese, which keeps the loaf firm and easy to slice. Roasted on a tray with potatoes, it looks festive enough for a holiday table but comes together on an ordinary weeknight.

Pro tip: any firm melting cheese can stand in for provolone. Brussels sprouts, added halfway through baking, make a great alternative to potatoes.

Chicken meatloaf is lighter than the beef version but far from plain: mortadella, ricotta, and aged cheese give the ground chicken real depth. The ricotta keeps the loaf moist in the oven and lends it an almost airy texture. It’s the one to make when you want comfort food without the heaviness of red meat.

Pro tip: cooked ham can replace the mortadella, and a handful of chopped pistachios or hazelnuts adds crunch and color to every slice.

Tuna Meatloaf is the most unexpected of the four, and it needs no meat at all. Tuna in oil, mashed potatoes, eggs, capers, and lemon peel come together in a soft, briny loaf that’s served sliced at room temperature instead of hot from the oven. That makes it an ideal make-ahead main, or an antipasto to bring out before dinner.

Pro tip: let it cool completely before slicing for clean, neat portions, and feel free to fold in chopped olives or a little grated cheese.

Every Italian family has its own polpettone, and almost every one would tell you theirs is the right one. Whichever of these lands on your table, it brings that unhurried Sunday feeling with it: a warm kitchen, a sliced loaf passed around, and nobody in a rush to get up.