Creamy Pasta with Peas and Ham
Linguine, freeze-dried mushrooms, and a powdered cream sauce that sets off the pot heat.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 14 min
- water
- 600 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Linguine, broken in half | 3 oz | broken so it fits the pot and cooks flat |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried mushrooms | 1/4 cup | shiitake or button |
| Freeze-dried peas | 1/4 cup | |
| Freeze-dried broccoli | 1/4 cup | stands in for the fiddleheads or asparagus |
| Shelf-stable diced ham or bacon crumbles | 1.5 oz | a foil pouch, not a can |
| Powdered heavy cream or full-fat milk powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Grated parmesan | 2 tbsp | the dry green-can kind keeps for weeks |
| Powdered egg | 1 tbsp | optional, it thickens the sauce |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | 1/4 tsp each | |
| Dried basil | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Boil 600 ml of water. Drop in the linguine, mushrooms, peas, and broccoli all at once.
- Simmer 8 to 10 minutes, stirring so the pasta does not weld to the bottom. The vegetables rehydrate on the same clock as the noodles.
- Do not drain. Let the water cook down to a shallow layer at the bottom of the pot. If you overshoot and it goes dry, add a splash back.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the ham, cream powder, parmesan, egg powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Stir hard for a minute. The residual heat sets the egg and the powder thickens the leftover water into sauce.
- Pour the oil over, scatter the basil, and eat out of the pot.
The original was a carbonara pretending to be primavera: raw eggs and cream tipped over hot pasta, plus fiddleheads that are a two-week window in spring and not something you carry. On trail the whole thing collapses into one pot. Freeze-dried mushrooms, peas, and broccoli rehydrate in the pasta water, so the vegetables and noodles finish together and nothing gets drained away.
The sauce is the part worth getting right. Cook the water down instead of pouring it off, then take the pot off the flame before the powders go in. Residual heat sets the egg powder into something creamy; direct flame scrambles it and you get grit stuck to the pot floor. The oil at the end is not garnish, it is a third of the fat in the bowl.
Packing
Everything dry except the ham and oil goes in one bag: pasta and vegetables in the bag, the powders in a small twist of foil or a snack bag inside it so they do not coat the noodles. Ham pouch and oil bottle ride separately.
Variations
- A foil pouch of chicken or tuna instead of the ham.
- Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped small at home, add acid the cream needs.
- Skip the ham and it goes vegetarian, though not vegan or gluten-free.
https://mealswithmaria.site/summer-pasta-primavera-recipe-with-fiddleheads