I tend to do a lot of pasta. Normally have a meal of spagetti on a trip and try to stay low budget so I just grab a jar of (I forget if it's ragu or pregue or what that comes in the plastic jar) But two problems with it, obviously too heavy and you can only get it in a quantitiy that's only right for a bigger group.
Does anyone have a powdered spagetti sauce that you don't need canned tomatto paste to make? If not, does anyone know of a sauce that comes in a plastic container that isn't huge?

I'm a huge Spaghetti eater. I make it from scratch if I have the time, but more often than not, I buy whatever is on sale ( jar/can), and doctor it up to my taste.

If you have access to a dehydrator or don't mind using your oven, you can easily de-hydrate any sauce and re-constitute it in camp.

I like whole wheat pasta, as it packs more nutrition than white, plus more protein, important for muscle/brain function.

I'll boil water for pasta, and add pasta. Before it gets to " Al-Dente", I pour off all but a cup/ cup and a half, depending on size of sauce I de-hydrated. Add dehydrated sauce, mix well and reduce to simmer with lid on pot. Check for pasta tenderness and add more water if needed. I rather add water ( red wine ;) ) than start with too much, but either way you can make adjustments.

You can try a batch at home and work out the kinks.

You can dehydrate it in your oven or in a dehydrator.  Tear it into small chunks after it's dry and it's easier to rehydrate.  That's what I usually do for spaghetti sauce, salsas, and the like.  

When you reconstitute, don't add water enough to return it to full volume or it will be too thin.  Go about 75% and add more if you need.

Edit:  Looks like ST beat me with the same advice!

I've taken dry spaghetti sauce before, but they all seem to require tomato paste ... which I would dehydrate anyway.  So there is not much upside when you can just dehydrate the off-the-shelf spaghetti sauce.

However, unless your taste buds are set on a tomato-based sauce, you could go with a pesto sauce.  Some dry ones are pretty descent and you'll only need oil and water ... plus the prep time is near zero.  I've used pesto on tortellini, pasta shells and orzo ... not bad on any of them.

dd

DD, I usually use tortellini without any sauce and recently (at home) experimented with orzo noodles with a cheesy powder meant for popcorn, surprisingly good.
I guess it just never occured to me to dehydrate whatever sauce. I tend to neglect my dehydrated besides making post deer season jerky. I'll definetly have to pull it down in the next day or two and give it a try. I'm assuming it's got to get brittle crispy in order to keep well?
I've also never thought of the pesto sauce. That will defienetly show up on my short list for trying soon. I think my wife is starting to wonder when I'll stop trying out canoe recipes so we can cook a meal at home using more than one pot and maybe even use more than the handful of ingredients that go along on canoe trips.
Thanks for the suggestions.

For sauces, I'll generally dehydrate until the exposed side is dry to the touch.  On the sheet, this means that the back side will still be tacky.  While hot, I peal the sauce and reverse--tacky side up--and continue until dry.  Then remove while still warm.  It should still be plyable.  Fold down to baggy size and store in the frig until departure.  As it cools, it will become nearly rock hard.  To speed re hydration, tear into small pieces before mixing with liquid.

I begin my dehydration regime approximately 1 week prior to departure.  I transport in a cooler, but then I'm a 2-day's drive to a put-in.

dd

ST is wise.
Spending $50 will save you hundreds of cash & weight over the years.
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I got one 15 years ago.  I wish it would break so I can get the newer model which I hear is a lot better.

Most of my meals are things I make & dehydrate on my own.  Meal for meal, cheaper & lighter than any freeze dried options I've seen.

Spag sauce is a staple in my food bag.  It dries to a fuit leather like consistancy.  When I make it for dehydrating I only use tomato paste.  The only difference between tomato paste and tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes is water.  I'm taking the water out anyway.

Be sure to add something for protein.  If you don't make a meat sauce, then crumble some tofu or granulated TVP in.

Quote:

Be sure to add something for protein.  If you don't make a meat sauce, then crumble some tofu or granulated TVP in.

Another option is to add beans. Along with whole wheat pasta which contains protein, you get the same benefit as real meat/tofu/TVP.

I often make pasta at home using just the Italian diced tomatoes that already contain olive oil/oregano/garlic etc depending on brand and style. I'll also use a can of diced tomatoes with the chili seasonings in them for a little kick, I like spicy food.

I take 2 -16oz cans of diced tomatoes. First I take a frozen 12oz bag of red/yellow/green sliced peppers and onions and with a little olive oil, sauté in skillet. I buy the Kroger house brand, but I'm sure all the markets carry them. Peppers are an excellent source of Vitamin C among other things. Once the peppers are thawed and start to take on some color, I add the 2 cans of diced tomatoes and a can of beans/drained. I use black/kidney/, whatever you like.
Bring to a slight boil, and let simmer while you make your whole wheat pasta. I like Rigatoni, it doesn't get mushy and re-heats well in the micro-wave.

This recipe would de-hydrate easily and reconstitute the same as the one with spaghetti leather. I'd do the pasta in camp. My experience with re-hydrating cooked dried pasta hasn't been a good one. Unless you use the little macaroni elbows or shells, it winds up just pasta bits when re-hydrated together.  I'd make a batch at home and work out any kinks, but it's really good and not expensive to make.

There are so many good dehydrator recipes available that unless you need the longer shelf life, you can make your own dried meals easily and cheaply. Once you get the idea, you can de-hydrate just about any of your favorite things and enjoy them on your trip.

I like the fact you can avoid the chemical preservatives and control the spice and salt content doing it yourself.

Someone passed on a large can of tomato powder to me some time ago and i haven't done anything with it until last week. 2tbs / 1 cup of water yields a tomato juice that was surprisingly tasty. I made a quick rue to thicken it up a bit, along with some traditional Italian seasoning and ended up with an excellent... pizza sauce. but with some tweaking i'm certain this stuff can make a great marinara.  

I use dried Prego and add ½ cup of cooked dried hot breakfast sausage in camp.

zski wrote on Feb 17^th, 2011 at 9:29pm:

Someone passed on a large can of tomato powder to me some time ago and i haven't done anything with it until last week. 2tbs / 1 cup of water yields a tomato juice that was surprisingly tasty. I made a quick rue to thicken it up a bit, along with some traditional Italian seasoning and ended up with an excellent... pizza sauce. but with some tweaking i'm certain this stuff can make a great marinara.

My buddy brought tomato powder on a trip. After he doctored it up, it was actually decent.  Not sure I'd have the patience.  I tend to bring the store bought stuff and put up with the weight.  Easy-peesy.

prouboy

I have found that store bought spaghetti sauce dehydrated comes out a little like a fruit roll up.  I break up the larger pieces  and put them in a sealed plastic sandwich bag.  Then just hydrate it over heat in camp.  Comes back pretty to to the original.

Ha!  I remember the tomato roll-ups!

Pretty good, huh?  Especially in tortellini !

I run the regular my regular store bought sauce through the dehydrator too, whatever that happens to be at the time. It ends up on the pizzas too. If I am looking for some variation I sometimes add dehydrator dried lean burger, shelf stable chicken or shrimp, clams, or fresh laker...& even dried fresh tomato. One of the things that I have also learned is that taking the sauce to a drier the leather water content is that the favor of the sauce take on a favor of sun dried tomato, or it gets a more smokey flavor. Less water less weight, more flavor ;D

I love spaghetti. I make my own sauce. I make extra every time I make it and dry it in my dehydrator. It reconstitutes fabulously and cast next to nothing to make an extra portion with your meal.

I like to use dehydrated Prego. When rehydrating it, i am careful not to add too much boiling water at first as I like it somewhat more thick than when it came out of the jar. Also, rehydrating tends to kill the seasoning, so add some dried oregano, basil, etc. when rehydrating.

For the spaghetti, i use "thin spaghetti." I use a 12 cm alunimum backacking cup with lid and homemade Reflectix pot cozy. I put a half pound of spaghetti in my cup, broken in thirds or fourths so the noodles fit in the cup. Then i fill the cup with boiling water, close the lid, and put the pot in the cozy for 20 minutes. Then I drain any excess water and the spaghetti is done and warm.

Add the rehydrated sauce, extra seasoning, and some parmesan, maybe a little olive oil, and chow down. Minimal clean up.

Hey welcome to QJ Jerald! You just said a bunch of stuff I've never heard before. How long does it take to re-hydrate the sauce using hot water? The same ~20 minutes? I'm thinking Boboli pizza sauce, and agree thick is good.

I have gotten tomato powder and dehydrated onion pieces and mushrooms from Packit Gourmet before our last two trips.  They are easy to carry, weigh almost nothing, and combined with a few Italian spices and a little boiling hot water make a very good marinara sauce in just about 2 minutes.  I take Angel Hair pasta, which cooks up very quickly, or the cheese-filled dry tortellini.

We don't mind an occasional vegetarian meal, but I suppose if we had to have meat, could add some pepperoni pieces.

Have never invested in a dehydrator, and at this time in my life probably won't.  Don't have that many more trips in me, and we really don't mind a few packages of commercial freeze-dried food.   ;)

Not a lot different but dehydrate Prego sauce, onions, pepprs, mushrooms, and (very lean) ground beef separately, long in advance.  On the day I'm planning pasta for supper, put dehydrated ingredients into a nalgene cup at lunch with some water.  Cook angel hair pasta, drain, and add the sauce in that pot.  I kind of chopped up the Prego leather before sealing in my seal a meal.

I de-hydrate store bought pasta sauce and spice it up to my tastes.
I use fruit roll-up trays and make the pasta " leather" as thin as I can.
I tear the dried leather into small pieces before storing in zip-lock.

Marlin 55 makes a good point. Drying the sauce does intensify/concentrate the flavor.
I find that means I can stretch the amount I use per meal.

I do something a little different than most, but it works well for me and keeps the meal to 1 pot.
I cook the pasta to just before " détente". I drain all the water out except about a 1/2 cup or so, depending on how thick you like your sauce?

If I add meat, it's usually in the way of foil packed chicken/tuna or I cut up venison sticks or whatever fish I might have handy and halfway thru pasta cooking, add that to pot.

After draining all but the 1/2 cup or so, I add the small pieces of sauce "leather", stir for a minute or so and then cover and keep warm for 5 minutes or so. Remove lid, stir and add more water if needed.
If you keep the leather pieces small, they re-hydrate faster and this method is quick and easy.

I've found that small elbows carry well and that whatever you use, thinner is better as well as using smaller pieces.

I also prefer whole wheat pasta over white, more energy punch for the same weight.
It also has more protein than white pasta which aids in maintaining muscle function and allows you to feel satisfied faster.

It also has way more fiber, which considering the effects of some freeze dried commercial products and daily fried fish meals might prove to be a blessing in the "end", pun intended. ;)

Yes, I forgot to mention that I always use at least multi-grain pasta, or whole wheat.   ;)  At home as well as on a canoe trip.

I usually do a pasta sauce with either spaghetti or spinach/cheese tortellini; however, this year I think I'm replacing this meal with Hungarian Goulash.  The sauce should dehydrate pretty much like pasta sauce and then the elbow macaroni will be as easy to package as tortellini.  (Unfortunately, it looks like I'll have to make this sauce from scratch rather than out of a bottle.)

dd

Yes, it takes about 20 minutes in a pot cozy with the boiled water for the sauce to rehydrate.

I am surprised that so many people boil pasta because it uses a lot of fuel. My thin spaghetti rehydrates in 20 minutes. I like to boil water on my LittlBug when possible.

DentonDoc wrote on Feb 6^th, 2012 at 10:51pm:

I'm replacing this meal with Hungarian Goulash.dd

Hey DD, my son married a woman from Budapest.  Need a goulash recipe!!?

prouboy

Puckster wrote on Feb 7^th, 2012 at 2:42am:

Hey DD, my son married a woman from Budapest.  Need a goulash recipe!!?

Lovely city (or should I say 2 cities).  Central Market Hall is one of my favorite building ... amazing colors on the roof.

I just adapted a recipe I found online ... I had to ramp up the spices just a tad  though (e.g., more paprika, bay leaves, etc.).

dd

I ate my daughter-in-law's mother's goulash in a small condo in Budapest.... Our first visit and a very ceremonial affair....like our Thanksgiving....  The temp in the room was probably 85 degrees.  The goulash was incredibly spicy.  Then we washed it down with slivovitz, or something nasty and potent like that.  Not sure I was going to survive.  Her parents knew no English and we knew no Hungarian (except a drinking toast!)  So when the d-i-l was out of the room we became proficient at pointing, nodding, and smiling.  It was a memorable experience!

Lots of great ideas here.  I, too, dehydrate pasta sauce.  I also dehydrate salsa.  Mild salsa with a few dehydrated Roma tomatoes and some dehydrated ground beef or freeze-dried chicken (from Mountain House) is great with gnocchi, which cooks faster than durum pasta.

Or try some pasta sauce, chicken, mushrooms (all rehydrated) and currants or raisins over couscous.  My preference is Wild Forest Mushroom Couscous from Casbah Natural Foods.

In better supermarkets you can get sauce and even pesto on a tube that you just add a little water.  I can't remember the brand, but it comes from Europe. Tastes great too.

Pomi is a brand that makes tomato sauces in a non-glass or metal container.    (You need to Login or Register

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Is that dehydrated?

I've been wondering about using a packet of Boboli pizza sauce for spaghetti sauce on a solo. No fuss no muss. I'm thinking you wouldn't even need to heat it as the noodles would do that well enough.

I'm using home dehydrated pizza sauce for poth pizza and spighetti.  I put sauce and dehydrated vegetables and ground beef in a cup with tight lid at lunch with water, cook noodles at night, drain, and just poor on the sauce and stir.  Pretty easy.  I think the separately dehydrated sauce, vegs, and beef have more flavor than all mixed and dehydrated at once, but not everyone cares.

The Pomi is a 'boxed' sauce...kinda like a box/carton of wine.  There are a couple other brands out there I have seen like that.  Some are just tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes.  Our local grocery used to carry bagged sauce in a plastic pouch like some freeze dried stuff comes in.  One was Ragu, the other I don't recall.  Haven't seen them lately.  Each was about 2 cups or enough for two as I recall.  I just put the whole bag standing up (has that type of a bottom) in with boiling noodles and heat at the same time. 

San Goirgio brand has quick cooking pasta that only takes 3-5 minutes to cook vs. the 15-20 of regular pasta.  Find it on the grocery shelf with the rest.  I like the penne, as it holds the sauce better.  And they don't cost any more than regular noodles.

I also take pesto and since I have a food sealer (greatest invention for paddlers since the paddle!), so I buy the jarred variety of choice and just bag some up the day before leaving.  Get as much air out as you can and it does quite well for days w/o refrigeration. 

A note when using a food sealer - you don't have to suck the air out of everything.  You can just seal with a small amount of air.  Especially good with pointy stuff like noodles can be - they will poke holes in the bags!  Same with delicate items that will crush under vaccum or with wet stuff, as the vaccum will suck out the liquid as well as air, making the seal a bit questionable.  Works great on non-food stuff you don't want to risk getting wet, too - like spare camera batteries!

pd

portage dog wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2012 at 4:56pm:

A note when using a food sealer - you don't have to suck the air out of everything.  You can just seal with a small amount of air.  Especially good with pointy stuff like noodles can be - they will poke holes in the bags!  Same with delicate items that will crush under vaccum or with wet stuff, as the vaccum will suck out the liquid as well as air, making the seal a bit questionable.  Works great on non-food stuff you don't want to risk getting wet, too - like spare camera batteries!

I use Playtex baby bottle liners to seal small items or small quantities of whatever. They are very tough and inexpensive when compared to food-saver bags. About three seconds on the seal only setting and they are good to go.

Barry Farms (online) has dried tomato powder,dices and julienned in small quantities, also peppers and much other dried stuff. I make the tomato sauce with the powder, dices and green peppers and then add a pouch of off the shelf spaghetti sauce mix. Gets very thick & tasty.

Also alfredo, dried milk (or dried sour cream) with minced garlic, salt & pepper, perhaps an off the shelf dried alfredo mix, and add a roux, simmer and serve over pasta. Add Italian sausage or andouille.

big_hitz -- what are "dices?"  Did you mean to write "spices?"  I thought it was a typo, but then I saw your repeated the word in your note.

I will check out Barry Farms.

prouboy

prouboy:

"Dices" are pieces of something chopped fairly fine.  When I have made spaghetti sauce in camp I have used tomato powder, sweet onion dices, tomato dices, freeze-dried mushrooms, and also some spices (garlic, oregano, mixed Italian spice, salt, pepper.)  And water, of course.  I buy the veggie items at Packit Gourmet online.  They also sell little individual packets of Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top (or to put into the sauce if you prefer.)