Dutch Oven Lasagne al Forno
A proper layered lasagne built out of a car-camping box and baked in coals.
- calories
- 690
- weight
- 7.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 92
- protein
- 36 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 50 min
- total time
- 75 min
- water
- 900 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried ground beef | 4 oz | rehydrates in the sauce, no cooler needed |
|---|---|---|
| Shelf-stable pork sausage crumbles | 3 oz | vacuum pouch, or a second serving of freeze-dried beef |
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp | |
| Dried onion flakes | 3 tbsp | |
| Dried carrot and celery | 1/4 cup total | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Tomato paste | 2 tbsp | tube, not tin |
| Dry red wine | 1/2 cup | optional, a box wine pours cleanly |
| Tinned chopped tomatoes | 14 oz tin | |
| Beef bouillon | 2 cubes | |
| Dried rosemary and 1 bay leaf | 1 tsp rosemary | |
| Butter | 3 tbsp | keeps a week out of the sun; ghee keeps longer |
| Plain flour | 3 tbsp | |
| Whole milk powder | 1/2 cup | plus 500 ml water |
| Nutmeg | a pinch | |
| No-boil lasagne sheets | 8 sheets | |
| Low-moisture mozzarella | 4 oz | the vacuum-sealed block, kept in the cooler |
| Parmesan | 2 oz | a wedge, grated at camp |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want a bed of coals, not flames.
- Set the dutch oven over coals. Heat the oil and soften the onion, carrot, and celery flakes in 1/2 cup water until the water is gone.
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook it a minute until it darkens. Add the wine and let it steam off.
- Add the tomatoes, bouillon, rosemary, bay leaf, freeze-dried beef, sausage, and 1/2 cup water. Simmer 20 minutes until it is thick and holds a spoon track. This is the whole game.
- Scrape the ragu into a pot or bowl and wipe the oven out.
- Melt the butter in the oven, stir in the flour, cook one minute. Whisk in 500 ml water a little at a time, then the milk powder, nutmeg, and salt. Cook until it coats the spoon.
- Pour off two-thirds of the bechamel. Layer in the oven: ragu, sheets, bechamel, repeat, breaking the sheets to fit the round. Finish with bechamel and both cheeses.
- Lid on. Coals underneath, more coals on the lid, roughly twice as many on top as below. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.
- Pull it off the heat and give it ten minutes before you cut it. Cut it hot and it slides apart.
The original of this is a fridge-and-oven dish, so most of the work here was replacing things that spoil. Freeze-dried beef rehydrates in the ragu and weighs nothing in the food box. The bechamel is built from milk powder and water, which behaves the same as milk once the roux has it. No-boil sheets matter: there is no second pot of water at camp, and they take their moisture from the sauce.
The thing that ruins a camp lasagne is a loose ragu. Any liquid that has not cooked off before assembly comes out of the layers in the dutch oven and pools at the bottom. Simmer it until it is genuinely thick. Coal placement is the other half. Most of the heat belongs on the lid, or the base scorches while the top stays pale.
Packing
Dry ragu ingredients, aromatics, and bouillon go in one bag at home. Flour and milk powder in another, already measured. Butter and cheese ride in the cooler; everything else lives in the food box.
Variations
- Skip the wine and use another 1/2 cup water plus a splash of vinegar at the end.
- No dutch oven: build it in a foil pan, cover with foil, and set it on a grill grate over low coals for about the same time.
- Dried mushrooms in the ragu stretch the meat and add body.
https://www.baldhiker.com/lasagne-al-forno-recipe