Meatball Skillet with Melted Cheese
Shelf-stable meatballs and hard cheese in tomato sauce, cooked in one pot at camp.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 6.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 95
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 300 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
- Canoe / raft
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried ground beef | 4 oz | or shelf-stable precooked meatballs if you have a cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Panko breadcrumbs | 1/4 cup | binds the rehydrated beef |
| Powdered egg | 1 tbsp | plus 2 tbsp water |
| Powdered milk | 2 tbsp | |
| Grated parmesan | 1/4 cup | the shelf-stable green-can kind is fine |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Tomato powder | 1/2 cup | or a 3 oz tube of tomato paste |
| Dried oregano and basil | 1 tsp each | |
| Sugar | 1 tsp | cuts the acid |
| Low-moisture mozzarella | 3 oz | the vacuum-sealed block, unopened, keeps a couple of days out |
| Dried parsley | 1 tsp |
Method
- Cover the freeze-dried beef with 150 ml of hot water in your pot. Wait ten minutes until it stops being crunchy. Drain off anything loose.
- Stir in the panko, parmesan, powdered milk, powdered egg with its water, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Mix until it just holds together and stop there. Worked too long, it goes rubbery.
- Squeeze the mixture into balls about an inch and a half across. Wet hands help.
- Wipe the pot, heat the oil over a low flame, and brown the meatballs on all sides. Roll them, don't stir them. Lift them out onto a plate or lid.
- Whisk the tomato powder into 150 ml of hot water in the same pot with the oregano, basil, and sugar. Simmer two minutes until it thickens.
- Return the meatballs, spoon sauce over them, and cover. Ten minutes on the lowest heat you can hold.
- Kill the heat, scatter the mozzarella over the top, and put the lid back on for two minutes. Finish with parsley.
The original is an oven dish: raw meatballs broiled on a sheet pan, dumped in a casserole, buried in a jar of marinara and two cups of shredded cheese. None of that travels. The rebuild swaps freeze-dried beef for ground, powdered egg and milk for the fridge versions, and tomato powder for the jar, which is where most of the weight went. Everything happens in one pot over a single burner.
The binder matters more here than at home. Rehydrated beef has no fat holding it together, so the panko, egg, and parmesan are structural, not seasoning. Brown the balls before the sauce goes in or they will fall apart in the simmer. Low-moisture mozzarella melts without releasing the water that fresh mozzarella would, so the sauce stays a sauce.
Packing
Panko, parmesan, powdered milk, powdered egg, and the spices go in one bag as a meatball mix. Tomato powder, herbs, and sugar go in a second. Beef and cheese ride separately.
Variations
- Skip the meatball shaping entirely: brown the rehydrated beef loose and make it a sauce over instant polenta.
- A packet of pepperoni in the sauce adds fat and salt with no extra cooking.
- Crusty rolls from the trailhead town turn the leftovers into sandwiches.
https://mealswithmaria.site/meatball-and-mozzarella-bake