Freeze-Dried Sausage and Herb Pasta
Pantry-can staples — pasta, sausage crumbles, powdered cheese — cooked down in one pot.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 31 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Small dry pasta | 2 oz | shells or elbows; long noodles need too much water |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried sausage crumbles | 1/3 cup | |
| Freeze-dried bell pepper and onion | 1/4 cup total | |
| Powdered cheese blend | 3 tbsp | the cheese sauce mix out of a #10 can works |
| Dried Italian herbs | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the pasta, the sausage crumbles, and the dried vegetables all at once.
- Simmer about 8 minutes, stirring so nothing welds to the bottom. The sausage and peppers rehydrate on the same clock as the pasta.
- Cut the heat when the pasta is soft and most of the water is gone. Leave a few tablespoons of liquid behind.
- Stir in the cheese powder and herbs. It will look thin, then tighten as it cools.
- Pour the oil over and stir. Salt and pepper at the end, since the cheese powder is already salty.
This is what a freeze-dried pantry is actually for. Home-canned staples — pasta, sausage crumbles, dried peppers and onion, cheese powder — were bought to be assembled, not eaten as a mystery entree, and they happen to make a good one-pot trail dinner with no substitutions needed.
The timing is the whole trick. Freeze-dried meat and vegetables rehydrate in roughly the time small pasta takes to cook, so everything goes in the same pot at the same moment and you boil once. Hold back a little water at the end; the cheese powder needs something to dissolve into, and pasta keeps drinking as it sits.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one quart freezer bag. Oil rides in a dropper bottle. If you buy freeze-dried by the can at home, portion into trip-sized bags the week you open it — an opened #10 can does not stay good indefinitely.
Variations
- Freeze-dried ground beef instead of sausage, with a spoon of tomato powder for a red sauce.
- Swap the cheese powder for a squeeze of shelf-stable pesto if you are only out one or two nights.
- Double the pasta and cheese for two people; water goes to 1 liter, not double.
https://thesurvivalmom.com/8-tips-for-placing-your-first-survival-food-order