One-Pot Mostaccioli
Penne, sausage crumbles, and tomato powder cooked in one pot with just enough water to leave a sauce.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 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
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Penne or rigatoni | 3 oz | smaller shapes cook faster and need less fuel |
|---|---|---|
| Dried Italian sausage crumbles | 1.5 oz | freeze-dried, or chopped hard salami |
| Tomato powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for the jar of marinara |
| Dried minced onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Dried oregano and basil | 1 tsp total | |
| Grated parmesan | 1/4 cup | the shelf-stable canister kind |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes | to taste |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Stir in the sausage crumbles and dried onion first so they rehydrate while the pasta cooks.
- Add the pasta. Keep it at a low boil and stir often, or it will weld to the bottom.
- Cook until the pasta is soft and most of the water is gone, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add splashes of water if it dries out early.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the tomato powder, garlic powder, herbs, and oil. It thickens fast.
- Add the parmesan, cover the pot, and let it sit two minutes. Season and eat out of the pot.
The oven version bakes because the cheese needs to brown. On trail there is no oven, so the dish gets rebuilt around a single boil: the pasta cooks directly in the sauce water instead of being drained, which means no strainer, no wasted starch, and no second pot.
Tomato powder replaces the jar of marinara and does the heavy lifting on weight. It goes in after the heat is off, because tomato solids scorch on a thin pot bottom and thicken the water enough to stop the pasta cooking evenly. Block mozzarella does not travel without a cooler, so canister parmesan carries the salt and the fat instead.
Packing
Pasta and sausage crumbles in one bag. Tomato powder, herbs, and parmesan in a second bag so they do not go into the boil early. Oil in a leakproof bottle.
Variations
- Freeze-dried ground beef for the sausage if you want it milder.
- A spoonful of powdered milk with the parmesan makes it closer to a baked cheese topping.
- Sun-dried tomato pieces add chew that powder alone will not give you.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/baked-mostaccioli