Lasagna Soup, One Pot
Sausage crumbles, tomato powder, and broken noodles. Lasagna without the layers or the oven.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 700 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Shelf-stable Italian sausage | 5 oz | summer sausage or a dry salami chub, diced small |
|---|---|---|
| Broken lasagna noodles or rotini | 4 oz | snap lasagna sheets into thumb-sized pieces |
| Tomato powder | 1/4 cup | stands in for canned tomatoes and paste |
| Sun-dried tomatoes | 2 tbsp | chopped, for the roasted edge |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 tsp | |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 2 tsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/4 tsp | or leave them out |
| Bay leaf | 1 | |
| Grated parmesan | 1/4 cup | the dry shelf-stable kind in a shaker |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 700 ml of water to a boil with the bouillon, dried onion, garlic powder, oregano, pepper flakes, and bay leaf.
- Stir in the tomato powder and sun-dried tomatoes. Let it simmer a minute so the powder hydrates instead of clumping.
- Add the sausage and the broken noodles. Simmer on low heat, stirring often so the pasta does not weld to the bottom.
- Cook until the noodles are soft, around 10 minutes. Add a splash of water if it tightens up too far.
- Pull the bay leaf. Stir in the oil, then shower the parmesan over each bowl.
The original is an Instant Pot soup built on fresh sausage, two cans of tomatoes, six cups of broth, and a scoop of ricotta. None of that travels. Tomato powder replaces the cans and the paste at a fraction of the weight, bouillon replaces the broth, and a dry sausage chub does the job of ground Italian sausage without a cooler. The ricotta is gone — soft cheese and backcountry do not mix — so hard grated parmesan carries the dairy end alone.
Water is the number that matters. Canned tomatoes and six cups of broth are mostly water you are otherwise hauling; here you add it at camp. Keep the simmer low and stir, because pasta cooked in a thick tomato base scorches fast on a stove with one heat setting. Tomato powder needs a minute in hot water before the noodles go in or you will find dry pockets of it later.
Packing
All the dry seasoning, tomato powder, and bouillon go in one bag. Noodles in a second, sausage in a third, parmesan in a fourth so it stays loose.
Variations
- Swap the sausage for a foil pouch of chicken and add it at the end.
- A spoonful of powdered milk stirred in at the finish gets you close to the ricotta.
- Pepperoni slices work if you cannot find a sausage chub.
https://mealswithmaria.site/lasagna-soup-instant-pot