Instructions: Place the meats in a mixing bowl with the bread, cheese, eggs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Mix well with your hands. Do not taste for seasoning when you are working with raw pork.

Line the bottom of a 9 by 5 by 2 3/4-inch baking pan with a piece of waxed paper oiled on both sides. Place one-third of the meat mixture on the paper and flatten it out. Place the string beans over the meat and arrange carrot strips and olive halves on the beans.

Cover these vegetables with another third of the meat. Place the chopped spinach in the center of the meat so that it does not come to the edges of the pan and sprinkle with the pignoli nuts.

Cover the spinach with the rest of the meat and squeeze the edges together. Dot the top with butter. Cook 1 hour and 15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. If you wish, pour the optional can of tomatoes over the meat at the start of the cooking.

Unmold the meat loaf by turning it upside down onto a serving platter.

Comments: There is no reason meat loaf cannot be cooked to please the eye and taste buds as well as stretch the family budget. This layered-look meat loaf is a cut above the ordinary.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.