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


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

Ha!  I remember the tomato roll-ups!

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

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.

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.