Baked Ziti in a Pot
Pasta, cauliflower cream, and two cheeses, built without an oven and without a fridge.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 700 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Penne or ziti | 6 oz | ridged shapes hold sauce; skip long noodles |
|---|---|---|
| Cauliflower powder | 1/3 cup | dehydrated florets run through a spice grinder |
| Dried zucchini slices | 1/2 cup | or yellow squash, sliced thin before drying |
| Dried baby kale or spinach | 1/2 cup | packed loose, it crushes to nothing |
| Tomato sauce leather or powder | 1/2 cup | 1 cup of jarred sauce dried down |
| Monterey Jack | 3 oz | waxed or vacuum sealed |
| Grated parmesan | 1/4 cup | the shelf-stable shaker kind |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Boil 700 ml of water. Add the dried zucchini, kale, and tomato sauce and let them sit off heat for five minutes while they rehydrate.
- Bring it back to a boil, add the pasta, and cook until it is just short of done. Stir often, the sauce catches on the bottom.
- Pull the pot off the stove. Stir in the cauliflower powder a spoonful at a time. It will thicken fast.
- Cut the Jack into small cubes, stir them through, and put the lid on for two minutes.
- Add the parmesan, oil, salt, and pepper. Stir once and eat straight from the pot.
Baked ziti is a casserole, and casseroles do not travel. What survives the trip is the structure: starch, tomato, something creamy, and enough cheese to hold it together. The oven step exists to brown the top, which is worth nothing on trail, so it goes.
Cauliflower powder is doing the job cream would do at home. Dried and ground, it rehydrates into a thick neutral base that carries fat and keeps the pasta from swimming in thin tomato water. Add it off the heat and slowly, or it clumps. Cook the pasta in the sauce rather than draining it, because draining means a second pot and a liter of hot water thrown into the dirt.
Packing
Pasta in its own bag. Everything dried goes into a second bag together, since it all rehydrates at the same time. Cheese and oil ride separately and stay cool in the middle of the pack.
Variations
- A foil packet of chicken pushes it past 40 g of protein.
- Red pepper flakes and dried garlic cover for the lack of a hot oven.
- Cook the pasta at home, dehydrate it, and this becomes a five-minute soak instead of a fifteen-minute cook.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/recipe-healthy-baked-ziti-with-zucchini-and-kale-and-two-sauces