Spaghetti on the Trail is a Welcome Treat
Here are a few pictures from preparing Spaghetti for our January Laguna Mountain Trip. Step by Step instructions follow below.
Prep ingredients for GREAT trail spaghetti – the spices
Prep ingredients for GREAT trail spaghetti
Prep for great trail spaghetti includes either dried tomato or tomato paste.
Packaging ingredients for GREAT trail spaghetti – spices and sauce are in one Ziploc ready for rehydration
Packaging ingredients for GREAT trail spaghetti – Spaghetti and olive oil gets it’s own Ziploc
Prep ingredients for GREAT trail spaghetti – hamburger.
Prep ingredients for GREAT trail spaghetti – hamburger dehydrated after two hours is done.
Trail Spaghetti
Step by Step Instructions for 2 servings.
Backpacking food preparation can be overwhelming. This recipe is a bit complex compared to buying a packaged dehydrated dinner, but worth all the prep time. I ate this dinner four times over 21 days on the John Muir Trail.
The big picture: On the trail only cold water is added to start the rehydration and boiling water is used to heat up the sauce and rehydrate the angel hair pasta.
- Ziploc A has spices, dried mushrooms and onions, dehydrated hamburger, and olive oil packets.
- Ziploc AA has tomato paste which is sealed and goes inside of Ziploc A.
- Ziploc B has Angel Hair Pasta
- At lunch, dinner prep starts. Cold water rehydrates Ziploc A while you hike.
- At dinner, the JetBoil has two purposes – to heat the sauce and to rehydrate the angel hair pasta
Step by Step Instructions
Dehydrate hamburger.
- Preheat oven to 200 deg F. This is a very low temp, this is not a typo.
- Fully cook hamburger and drain off all fat and juice.
- Spread hamburger out on a baking sheet.
- Place baking sheet with hamburger into the 200 deg F oven.
- Every 20 min, pull the baking sheet out and break up the crumbles.
- Continue to bake until there is no moisture in what is now beef gravel. Beef gravel can be stored in the freezer for 6 months. Some people say a year.
Ziploc A, Create the Sauce.
- 1 tsp Oregano, Thyme, Garlic Powder, red chili flakes
- (any of these are optional and other spices can be added)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 TBS Dried Onions
- ½ cup Dried Mushrooms
- 2 TBS dehydrated hamburger, also known as beef gravel.
Separate the wet part into Ziploc AA and enclose into Ziploc A
- 2 TBS Tomato Paste (OR dried tomato if one wants to order it).
Ziploc B
- 2 portions Angel Hair Pasta – ¼ of a 1 lb bag.
- One portion is 1/8 of a 1 lb package. This will look like very little food. If you are a huge pasta fan, you could double your portion. It will still look small, but keep in mind it expands a LOT.
- Please note – it is critical that one brings angel hair pasta and not regular Spaghetti. Regular Spaghetti needs to be cooked and a JetBoil cooking system will not work!
At Lunchtime
- Ziploc A. empty the tomato paste and 1-2 olive oil packets into the Ziploc.
- Add 1 cup of cold water.
- Mix.
- Let sit in Ziploc A for 3 to 4 hours and absorb the water.
At Dinnertime
- Boil a full JetBoil of water (up the the MAX fill line)
- Pour about ¼ of the JetBoil water into the sauce to heat it up. You could wrap a sweatshirt around it to keep it warmer.
- Leave the remaining water in the jetboil and add the 2 portions of Angel Hair Pasta. Very briefly bring back to a boil and stir. Turn off and cover.
- Let Angel Hair Pasta stand for 5 to 10 min. With practice, all of the water will be absorbed.
To Serve
- Serve one portion of Angel Hair pasta into a bowl and add the sauce on top.
- One can leave the second serving of pasta in the JetBoil, add sauce on top, and have only 1 JetBoil, 1 bowl and 2 sporks to clean.
Enjoy!