Bolognese Pasta Bake
Lasagna logic in one pan: undercooked pasta, meat sauce, and a cheese sauce lid that sets on low heat.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 1400 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
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried pasta | 200 g | short shapes only, penne or macaroni |
|---|---|---|
| Shelf-stable bolognese sauce | 500 g | a jar, or a pouch of dehydrated meat sauce rehydrated to the same volume |
| Dried cheese sauce mix | 1 packet | |
| Whole milk powder | 2 tbsp | stirred into the cheese sauce, not the pasta |
| Grated hard parmesan | 2 tbsp | the shelf-stable shaker kind |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Boil about 1.2 L of water and cook the pasta two minutes short of the package time. It should still have a hard center.
- Drain it. Save a mug of the pasta water. Set the pasta aside in the pot lid or a bag.
- In a mug or small pot, whisk the cheese sauce mix and milk powder into roughly 200 ml of hot water. Keep it thick enough to sit on top of things.
- Wipe the pot, add the oil and the bolognese, and pour in about half a cup of water. Bring it to a low simmer.
- Stir the pasta into the sauce. It should look too wet. Add pasta water until it does.
- Pour the cheese sauce over the surface and push it to the edges with the back of a spoon. Do not stir it in.
- Dust with parmesan, put the lid on, and hold the lowest flame you can for 6 to 8 minutes.
- Off the heat, lid on, five minutes. It goes from loose to sliceable in that window.
This is lasagna with the layers collapsed into one pan. Two things carry it. The pasta comes off the boil undercooked, so it finishes in the bolognese and takes on the sauce instead of sitting in it. And the sauce goes in deliberately loose, because the pasta drinks water for the rest of the cook and a tight sauce turns to paste in five minutes.
The cheese layer stays on top. Poured to the edges and left alone under a lid on low heat, it sets into a skin rather than dissolving into the pasta. Milk powder does the work fresh milk would do at home, and the resting time is not optional — straight off the heat it runs, and five minutes later it holds.
Packing
Pasta, cheese sauce mix, milk powder, and parmesan travel dry in one bag. The sauce is the heavy item, so a pouch beats a jar if you are carrying it any distance.
Variations
- Swap the meat sauce for a pouch of dehydrated bean chili or lentil ragu to make it vegetarian.
- A handful of dried mushrooms rehydrated in the pasta water adds body if the sauce is thin.
- No cheese sauce mix: milk powder, a little flour, and extra parmesan whisked into hot water does the same job.
https://www.advrider.com/bolognese-pasta-bake