One Pot Trail Spaghetti
Broken spaghetti cooked straight in the sauce, with the starch left where it belongs.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 30 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 18 min
- total time
- 23 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried spaghetti | 6 oz | broken in half, cheap brands work better here |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried ground beef | 2 oz | rehydrates in the sauce; jerky crumbles also work |
| Tomato powder | 1/3 cup | stands in for a jar of marinara |
| Dried Italian herbs and garlic powder | 1 tbsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Kosher salt and black pepper | 1 tsp salt, several grinds | |
| Grated hard parmesan | 1 oz | the dry shelf-stable kind |
| Red pepper flakes | a pinch | optional |
Method
- Put the beef crumbles and tomato powder in the pot with 600 ml of water. Stir and let them sit five minutes while the stove warms up.
- Add the oil, herbs, salt, and the broken spaghetti. Push the pasta under the liquid.
- Bring to a boil, then drop to the lowest flame that keeps it moving. Stir every minute or so — this sticks fast on a thin backpacking pot.
- Cook about 12 minutes. If it goes dry before the pasta is soft, add water 50 ml at a time.
- Kill the heat, cover, and wait 3 minutes. The pasta finishes and the sauce thickens.
- Grind pepper over it, add parmesan and red pepper, and eat out of the pot.
Cooking pasta in its own sauce is the whole point. No straining, no second pot, and the starch that would go down a drain at home stays in the pot and thickens everything. On a stove where every boil costs fuel, that matters more than it does in a kitchen.
The home version starts with browned ground beef and a jar of marinara, neither of which travels. Tomato powder plus water reconstitutes to about the same thing at a fraction of the weight, and freeze-dried beef crumbles rehydrate in the simmer without needing to be cooked. Watch the bottom of the pot — thin titanium scorches tomato in seconds, so keep the flame low and the spoon moving.
Packing
Tomato powder, herbs, salt, and beef crumbles go in one bag. Pasta in another, already broken, or the shards puncture the first bag. Oil and cheese ride separately.
Variations
- Swap the beef for a foil packet of tuna stirred in at the end, or textured vegetable protein to go vegan.
- A tablespoon of powdered milk stirred in at the finish rounds off the tomato acidity.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/one-pot-spaghetti-with-meat-sauce