ONE POT PASTA

[GroovyDad]

Let me first say that I am NOT a gourmet and I like to go very simple when I'm camping, but the other day I heard about a simple "One Pot Pasta" dish on NPR. I think it'd be great for camping and I though I'd share it here.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Looks delicious! A bit heavy on the salt, but I bet we could figure a way to tame that down.

 

[Tuff Guy 62]

Looks tasty! Always a fan of quick, simple one pot & fresh ingredients.

 

[Taku]

A recipe even I can follow. thanks!

 

[Shadyapex]

We saw that as well and made it a couple of times last summer. It's really good. It reminded me of a sort of pasta version of risotto.

 

[buckland]

Have been using this book for a number of years... great on the road or in the deep woods.

 

[buckland]

And how could I forget the classic Manifold Destiny!

 

[Advmoto18]

Let me first say that I am NOT a gourmet and I like to go very simple when I'm camping, but the other day I heard about a simple "One Pot Pasta" dish on NPR. I think it'd be great for camping and I though I'd share it here.

Why?

One post dishes are good for some things such as rabbit stew (a favorite in northern Italy), but, pasta? I don't think so. Never saw such the year I lived in Italy.

I'm not a formally trained chef either, but, am pretty good cook. There's no need to sacrifice eating tasty, well prepared pasta sauces, or any food for that matter when camping, or even backpacking.

The pasta sauce is everything IMO. And properly cooked pasta.

It is very easy to source fresh tomatoes, onions (I prefer shallots) and garlic. A simple marinara sauce is very, very easy! Let the sauce ingredients simmer for 30 minutes, cover, remove from heat. Now bring a pot of water to a rapid boil, add a couple of pinches of salt and cook the pasta.

Once the pasta has boiled to al dente, drain and return pasta to pot and return to heat source. Gently stir pasta continuously to evaporate the remaining moisture in the pot and on the pasta itself. Stir continuously. 30 seconds should be enough time depending on flame.

Add half the pasta sauce to the noodles in the pot. Gently stir to coat. The sauce should adhere to and coat the pasta turning the noodle a slight reddish tint. "Drying" the pasta in the pot before adding the sauce helps the sauce stick to the noodle.

I preheat my pasta bowls with the drained hot pasta water. Dump water from bowls, serve pasta from pot and top with additional sauce. Top with a pinch of chopped, fresh parsley and grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese. Buy a small chunk of cheese and a small hand held grater. Pre-grated store bought cheese has no flavor!

Making pasta at Point Sublime, North Rim, Grand Canyon this past May (after OX-West). And yes, we cheated, used a 16oz can of Whole Food, low sodium, "fire roasted" diced tomatoes. Everything else was fresh.

It was such a beautiful setting, why cook inside the camper? We used the MSR Pocket Rocket (backpacking) stove to make the entire meal as described above.

 

[super doody]

I would cook the paste separately. Nothing worse than over cooked pasta.

 

[Bill D]

I have to agree with advmoto. A good pasta sauce takes more than 9 minutes to make. 9 minute boiled onions aren't my thing.

Even if I only had one pot, I would precook my pasta, make the sauce and then add the pasta again at the end to get it reheated.