Stuffed Shell Skillet
Everything that goes inside stuffed shells, cooked in one pot with the pasta.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 102
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 700 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
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Small pasta shells | 6 oz | jumbo shells will not cook evenly in a pot |
|---|---|---|
| Dried mushrooms | 1/2 cup | sliced shiitake or porcini |
| Dried spinach flakes | 1/2 cup | or 1 cup freeze-dried spinach |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Tomato powder | 1/4 cup | stands in for the jar of marinara |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | replaces the ricotta |
| Grated parmesan | 1/3 cup | the dry shelf can |
| Whole wheat breadcrumbs | 1/3 cup | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 2 tsp | |
| Dried basil | 1 tbsp | |
| Ground nutmeg | a pinch | |
| Salt and pepper | 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper |
Method
- Bring 700 ml of water to a boil. Dump in the mushrooms, spinach, and onion and let them sit off the heat for five minutes to rehydrate.
- Return to a boil, add the pasta, and cook until the shells are soft, about eight minutes. Stir often so nothing welds to the bottom.
- Do not drain. Kill the heat and stir in the tomato powder, milk powder, garlic, oregano, basil, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. The leftover water becomes the sauce.
- Stir in the oil and most of the parmesan. If it is soupy, add breadcrumbs a spoonful at a time until it thickens.
- Let it sit two minutes with the lid on, then top with the rest of the parmesan.
Stuffed shells are an oven dish with three separate components: boiled pasta, a cooked vegetable filling, and a sauce. None of that survives a camp kitchen. The fix is to stop stuffing anything and cook the filling, the sauce, and the pasta in the same pot, in that order, using the pasta water as the sauce base instead of pouring it out.
The ricotta is the part that had to go, since fresh cheese does not travel. Powdered milk plus dry parmesan plus a little oil gets close: enough fat and salt to coat the pasta, no cooler required. Breadcrumbs were binder in the original and they are thickener here, so add them last and only as needed. Rehydrating the mushrooms and spinach before the pasta goes in matters, because they take longer than the shells do and will stay leathery otherwise.
Packing
Two bags. Dry mix one: pasta, mushrooms, spinach, onion. Dry mix two: tomato powder, milk powder, parmesan, breadcrumbs, herbs, salt, pepper. Keeping the second bag separate matters, because powders dumped into boiling water at the start will scorch on the pot bottom.
Variations
- A foil packet of chicken stirred in at the end adds about 20 g of protein.
- Swap the breadcrumbs for instant potato flakes to make it gluten-free and thicker.
- Sun-dried tomatoes in place of some of the tomato powder give it more chew.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/spinach-mushroom-stuffed-shells-healthy-weight-watchers-recipe