Instructions: Meatloaf qualifies as comfort food on two levels:

For diners, its one of those dishes that conjures up home-cooked meals - precisely why its showing up on so many restaurant menus of late.

For cooks, its a near cant-miss proposition - a simple combination of meat, bread crumbs, vegetables and herbs or spices that can be slipped in the oven and pretty much left alone until done.

But comforting doesnt have to mean boring and bland.

Meatloaf is adaptable as few dishes are to accommodate a cooks whims and tastes. In the mood for something spicy? Top the meatloaf with salsa or your own Creole sauce.

Asian? Incorporate soy sauce and crunchy water chestnuts into the mixture.

Using up leftovers? "Stuff" the meatloaf with olives, raisins, hard- cooked eggs ... whatever tickles your fancy. Once you have a basic recipe down, improvising is a cinch so long as you keep the total amount of meat in relation to other ingredients approximately the same. Keep in mind that the egg called for in most recipes helps hold the meatloaf together, while breadcrumbs make it lighter.

Heres a tip from "Joy of Cooking" if youre experimenting and want a preview before baking: Make a small patty of the mixture and fry it as you would a hamburger. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. If it falls apart, add another egg.

While meatloaf can be made with nothing but ground beef as the main ingredient, the best results often come from mixing beef with ground pork or pork sausage. It works for the same reason as a pizza "with everything" - variety. Veal, ham and poultry are other possible additions.

There are about as many ways of shaping and cooking meatloaf as there are prospective ingredients.

One way to keep meatloaf from becoming dry is to cover it with aluminum foil while baking, uncovering it during the last 15 minutes to brown the top. I like cooking meatloaf uncovered, spooning sauce onto the top during the last quarter-hour of cooking.

Still other cooks prefer as much "crust" as possible on their meatloaf. For that, form a freestanding loaf and cook on a sheet pan rather than

In a loaf pan (but make sure the pan has sides tall enough to catch the drippings that cook out).

Quick-cooking individual meatloaves can be cooked in muffin tins.

Meatloaf can be wrapped in aluminum foil and steamed over boiling water, as in the accompanying recipe for embutido.

Looking for other meat loaf ideas? Recipes for meatballs that show up in many cuisines are nothing but mini-meatloaves. You may want to consider scaling back the spices slightly, as meatballs are designed to be enjoyed in smaller increments than meatloaves.

Finally, the recommendation here is to make twice as much meatloaf as you need for dinner. Meatloaf takes well to freezing, both before and after its been baked. And there may be a better leftover than a slice of meatloaf between two slices of bread, but I havent found it.

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