Dried Mushroom Soup with Ditalini
Dried mushrooms, potato flakes, and a fistful of small pasta. Italian in intent, one pot in practice.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 129
- protein
- 19 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 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
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Mixed dried mushrooms | 0.5 oz | a blend beats one species; chop them small at home |
|---|---|---|
| Bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp | chicken or vegetable |
| Freeze-dried onion and shallot | 2 tbsp total | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried celery flakes | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Salami or shelf-stable pancetta | 1.5 oz | diced at home |
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 3 tbsp | |
| Tomato paste | 1 tsp | the tube kind |
| Ditalini or other small pasta | 1/2 cup dry | |
| Dried oregano or marjoram | 1/2 tsp | |
| Grated parmesan | 2 tbsp | the dry shelf-stable can |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Put the dried mushrooms in your mug or pot with 200 ml of just-boiled water. Let them sit 15 minutes. Do not throw out that water, it is most of the flavor.
- Heat the oil in the pot and crisp the diced salami for two minutes.
- Add the onion, shallot, celery flakes, garlic powder, and tomato paste. Stir for thirty seconds until the paste darkens.
- Pour in the mushrooms with their soaking water plus another 400 ml, add the bouillon and oregano, and bring it to a boil.
- Add the pasta and cook at a low boil until it is soft, about 9 minutes. Stir often so nothing welds to the bottom.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the potato flakes a spoonful at a time until it thickens, then the parmesan. Salt and pepper at the end, after the bouillon has had its say.
The original is a long-simmered soup built on a food-processed base of onion, leek, shallot, and celery. None of that survives a pack, so the aromatics come dried and the potatoes come as flakes. What matters is preserved: the mushroom soak. Half an ounce of dried mushrooms in hot water makes a stock stronger than anything a bouillon cube produces on its own, and pouring that soaking liquid into the pot is the whole point.
Potato flakes replace the diced potatoes that traditionally thicken this. They do it in thirty seconds instead of twenty minutes of simmering, and they carry the oil and the parmesan fat instead of letting it slick the surface. Salami stands in for pancetta because it does not need a cooler. Add the tomato paste with the aromatics and let it hit hot oil for a moment before the water goes in, or it just tastes like tomato.
Packing
Mushrooms in their own small bag so you can soak them separately. Everything else dry goes in one bag except the pasta, which needs its own so you can time it. Oil and tomato paste ride in the same ditty bag as the rest of your squeeze tubes.
Variations
- Skip the salami and use vegetable bouillon for a meatless pot. It loses fat, so double the oil.
- Sherry does not travel, but a splash of whatever is in your flask at the end does the same job.
- Leave the pasta home and add more potato flakes for a thick, creamy version that packs lighter.
https://foragerchef.com/italian-mushroom-soup-zuppa-di-funghi