camp meals

Squirrel and Mushroom Ravioli, Camp Version

Slow-cooked squirrel and dried mushrooms folded into fresh pasta, then finished in canned tomato sauce at the truck.

calories
620
weight
9 oz
cal / oz
69
protein
34 g
serves
5, scales
prep
120 min
cook
60 min
total time
180 min
water
3000 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
  • Campfire coals
  • Liquid fuel
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Real dishes
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Needs a cooler
  • Actual cooking

Ingredients

Semolina flour 2 cups plus a handful for dusting
Eggs 2 whole plus 1 yolk
Olive oil 1 tbsp for the dough, more for serving
Water up to 2 tbsp only if the dough will not come together
Salt 1 tsp for the dough, more to taste
Cooked boned squirrel meat 2 cups, finely chopped 2 to 3 squirrels, slow-cooked in broth until it falls off the bone
Shiitake or chanterelle mushrooms 1 cup chopped dried and rehydrated works and packs better
Garlic 1 clove for the filling, 2 for the sauce
Basil 2 tbsp chopped, plus more for the top
Parmesan 1/2 cup grated, plus shavings
Smoked mozzarella 4 oz, cut in half-inch cubes
Yellow onion 1, diced
San Marzano tomatoes one 28 oz can
Sugar 1 tsp
Black pepper to taste
Crusty bread 1 loaf

Method

  1. At home: slow-cook the squirrel in broth 8 to 10 hours until the meat pulls free, then bone it out and chop it fine. Keep it cold and use it within two days.
  2. At home: mound the semolina and salt, make a well, add the eggs, yolk, and oil, and work it into a stiff dough. Add water a teaspoon at a time only if it stays crumbly. Knead ten minutes, rest it thirty, then roll thin and cut sheets.
  3. At home: combine the chopped meat, mushrooms, minced garlic, basil, parmesan, salt, and pepper. Spoon it onto the sheets with a cube of smoked mozzarella on each mound, brush the edges with water, lay a second sheet over, and press out the air before cutting. Freeze the ravioli flat, then bag them and pack them frozen in the cooler.
  4. In camp: get a deep pot of salted water on the fire and bring it to a rolling boil. Move it off to the side of the grate while you build the sauce.
  5. In a second pan over coals, soften the onion in oil, add the garlic for a minute, then pour in the tomatoes, crushing them by hand. Add the sugar, salt, and pepper and let it cook down twenty to thirty minutes.
  6. Drop the ravioli into the boiling water a dozen at a time. They are done about two minutes after they float, four to five if still frozen. Lift them out with a slotted spoon.
  7. Spoon sauce over the ravioli, add oil, shaved parmesan, and torn basil. Wipe the pot out with the bread.

This one is not a trail meal and there is no honest way to make it one. Fresh pasta and a cooler are the whole premise, so the work moves home: slow-cook the squirrel, mix the filling, roll and cut the ravioli, and freeze them flat before you leave. Camp gets one boil and one pan of sauce.

Freezing does double duty. It keeps the meat and cheese safe in the cooler for a couple of days, and frozen ravioli hold their shape in a rolling boil far better than fresh ones do. The smoked mozzarella cube in the center is the reason to bother — it melts into the squirrel and mushrooms and gives the filling the fat that lean wild meat does not have.

Packing

Ravioli go in the cooler frozen in a single flat layer between sheets of parchment, in a rigid container so they do not crush. Sauce ingredients and bread ride outside the cooler. Bring a slotted spoon; tongs tear the pasta.

Variations

  • Rabbit or dark-meat chicken takes the same treatment if you did not come back with squirrels.
  • Skip the pasta entirely and cook the filling into the tomato sauce over boxed gnocchi or dry pasta. Same dinner, none of the rolling.
  • Dried mushrooms rehydrated in the squirrel broth put more of the flavor back in the filling.

https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/squirrel-and-mushroom-ravioli

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