One-Pot Cheesy Vegetable Pasta
Pasta, dried mushrooms, and tomato powder that cook down into a cheesy skillet dinner without a colander.
- calories
- 700
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 127
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 14 min
- total time
- 19 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
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Short dry pasta | 6 oz | spirals or bow ties, nothing that mats together |
|---|---|---|
| Dried mushroom slices | 1/2 cup | baby bella or cremini, broken small |
| Dried zucchini or mixed vegetable flakes | 1/2 cup | |
| Tomato powder | 1/4 cup | stands in for a jar of pasta sauce |
| Shelf-stable mozzarella or hard cheese | 3 oz | grated at home, or a vacuum block |
| Grated parmesan | 1/4 cup | the shaker kind keeps for weeks |
| Italian seasoning | 1 tbsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Add the pasta, dried mushrooms, vegetable flakes, and salt all at once.
- Simmer 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often so nothing welds to the bottom. Add a splash more water if it goes dry before the pasta softens.
- Cut the heat when the pasta is done and most of the water is gone. Do not drain it. The last of that water becomes the sauce.
- Stir in the tomato powder and Italian seasoning until it thickens and turns red.
- Add the cheese and oil, put the lid on, and wait two minutes off the stove. Stir once and eat from the pot.
The original bakes under a broiler, which is not happening on a stove that has one setting. The fix is to leave the water in. Cooking the pasta in just enough water and never draining it means the starch stays in the pot, and tomato powder stirred into that starchy liquid comes out closer to a sauce than to soup. No colander, no second dish, no drained-off calories.
Dried mushrooms and vegetable flakes rehydrate in the same boil as the pasta, which is why they go in at the start rather than at the end like the fresh ones would. Mozzarella off the shelf melts poorly once it has been dried, so grated hard cheese does the actual melting and the parmesan handles salt and smell. Two minutes with the lid on and the stove off does more for the cheese than any amount of stirring over heat.
Packing
Pasta, mushrooms, vegetable flakes, tomato powder, seasoning, and salt go in one bag at home. Cheese and oil ride separately.
Variations
- A foil packet of tuna or chicken pushes it well past 35 g of protein.
- Dried spinach or bell pepper flakes swap in for the zucchini one for one.
- Swap the pasta for gluten-free corn spirals; they need a closer eye and more stirring.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/cheesy-vegetable-pasta-bake