Venison Lasagna Skillet
Ground venison, tomato, and cheese over broken noodles. Lasagna without the layers or the oven.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 80
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 5, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 50 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
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Ground venison | 2 lb | frozen solid at the trailhead, thawed by dinner |
|---|---|---|
| Canned tomato sauce | 16 oz | |
| Tomato paste | 2 oz | tube keeps better than a can once opened |
| Water | 1 cup | |
| Italian seasoning | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | or 1 tsp granulated |
| Lasagna noodles | 4 sheets | snapped into pieces before packing |
| Pepperoni | 8 oz | shelf-stable, does the work ricotta can't |
| Shredded mozzarella | 8 oz | low-moisture, from the cooler |
| Grated parmesan | 4 oz | the dry canister kind travels fine |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried mushrooms | 1 oz | stands in for the portabella caps |
Method
- Cover the dried mushrooms with hot water in a mug and leave them while you cook. Keep the soaking liquid.
- Heat the oil in a deep skillet or Dutch oven over the fire. Brown the venison hard, breaking it up as it goes.
- Add garlic, Italian seasoning, tomato sauce, tomato paste, salt, and 1 cup of water. Pull the pan to the edge of the coals and let it simmer 20 minutes.
- Chop the drained mushrooms, stir them in with their soaking liquid, and add the broken noodles and enough water to just cover, roughly 500 ml more.
- Simmer 12 to 15 minutes, stirring often so the noodles don't weld to the bottom. Add water in splashes if it goes dry before the pasta is soft.
- Lay the pepperoni over the top, then the mozzarella and parmesan. Cover and hold it over low heat 5 minutes until the cheese melts.
- Take it off the heat and let it sit five minutes. It thickens as it cools.
The original is portabella caps stuffed with lasagna and baked. Camp has no oven and no ricotta that survives a day in a truck, so this rebuilds the same flavors in one pan: venison simmered in tomato, noodles cooked in the sauce, cheese melted on top under a lid instead of browned in an oven. Dried mushrooms replace the caps and carry the same earthy note without hauling eight fresh portabellas.
Cooking the noodles in the sauce rather than in separate water is the part that matters. You lose a pot, a strain, and about a liter of water, and the pasta picks up salt and tomato as it softens. Watch the bottom — starch plus a live fire scorches fast, so keep the pan off the hottest coals and keep the spoon moving.
Packing
Venison goes in the cooler frozen and thaws over the drive. Snap the noodles at home so they fit the pan. Pepperoni, parmesan, and the seasoning ride in the dry box; mozzarella stays cold.
Variations
- Ground beef or bulk Italian sausage works the same way if the freezer is empty.
- No cooler: skip the mozzarella and lean on parmesan and pepperoni, which both keep at ambient.
- A cup of quick-cook orzo instead of lasagna sheets cuts the simmer to eight minutes.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/venison-lasagna-stuffed-mushrooms-recipe