Ravioli Bake in a Pot
Freeze-dried beef, dried sauce, and dry cheese ravioli, simmered until it stops being crunchy.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 17 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
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried cheese ravioli | 6 oz | the shelf-stable dry kind, not frozen |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato sauce powder | 1/3 cup | or a dried spaghetti sauce mix |
| Garlic powder and dried Italian herbs | 2 tsp | |
| Freeze-dried ground beef | 2 oz | |
| Shredded parmesan or dried mozzarella | 1.5 oz | hard grating cheese only; it keeps unrefrigerated for days |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Put the freeze-dried beef in the pot with 150 ml of water and let it sit five minutes while the stove warms up.
- Add 450 ml more water and bring it to a boil.
- Drop in the ravioli. Simmer on the lowest flame that still bubbles, stirring often so nothing welds to the bottom. Ten to twelve minutes, or until a pillow squeezes soft.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the sauce powder, garlic, and herbs. It will look thin, then thicken as it sits.
- Scatter the cheese over the top, put the lid on for two minutes, then stir it through with the oil.
The original is a casserole: frozen ravioli, jarred sauce, browned beef, a fistful of mozzarella, forty minutes in an oven. None of that travels. Dry ravioli replaces the frozen kind and cooks straight in its own sauce water, powdered tomato replaces the jar, and freeze-dried beef replaces the pound of ground chuck. One pot, no draining, no oven.
The order matters more than it looks. Sauce powder added before the pasta is done will scorch on the pot bottom and thicken too early, leaving the ravioli crunchy inside. Cook the pasta in plain water, then build the sauce off heat with what is already in the pot. The oil is there because freeze-dried beef carries almost no fat, and a tomato sauce with no fat in it tastes flat.
Packing
Sauce powder, garlic, and herbs premix into one small bag. Ravioli and beef ride in their own bags; cheese in a third, since it sweats oil in the heat.
Variations
- Swap the beef for a foil packet of chicken stirred in at the end.
- Freeze-dried spinach or mushrooms added with the water bulk it out for little weight.
- No dried ravioli available? Small shell pasta and a spoon of cheese powder gets you most of the way.
https://mealswithmaria.site/45-minute-recipes