Pasta
Dried pasta, with any sauce, has to be the easiest camping meal. It is filling and high in carbohydrates. The down side is that pasta shapes tend to be bulky with a lot of wasted space in all that air. However, spaghetti is fine if bulk is a problem, although the Italians might have something to say about putting the right pasta with the right sauce.
Here are a few of my favourite sauces.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca (Whore's spaghetti)
This is a good one for the food dryer if you want to prepare it in advance and it then makes a good backpacking dish. It dries to a leathery consistency and reconstitutes perfectly. The instructions below assume you will cook from scratch at camp.
Olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 anchovy fillets, chopped
14 oz tin tomatoes
150g pitted black olives, chopped (you can get these tinned, which is fine for this recipe)
4 tbs capers
parsley
Put some water on to boil and when boiling add the pasta. Bring back to the boil then set the pasta pan aside whilst you make the sauce.
Fry the garlic and anchovies in olive oil until the anchovies disintegrate and the garlic is translucent. Add the tomatoes, olives and capers and cook for five minutes. You may have to bring the pasta back to the boil to finish it off but when it is ready, drain the pasta and add the sauce before serving.
Mixed peppers and onions
This is a fairly common staple of lazy camp cooking. All you need is a couple or three peppers (yellow and red work well together) and a large onion. Fry the onion in a generous amount of olive oil then add the peppers and cook until done as you like it. Combine with a pasta of your choice.
Broad Beans and bacon
This is another "house" favourite (with beans from the garden) that translates just as well to the camp site, if you can find the ingredients. Broad beans can be bought in their pods when in season or frozen when not. Peas work just as well, some would say better. The bacon can be of the lardons type or cut up slices; if you can get smoked bacon trimmings then all the better.
All you need for the sauce is to fry the bacon until the fat runs then add a chopped onion and fry until soft. Add the beans or peas and cook for a short while and then combine with cooked pasta. You can add a little of the pasta cooking water to make a runnier sauce.
Dried pasta, with any sauce, has to be the easiest camping meal. It is filling and high in carbohydrates. The down side is that pasta shapes tend to be bulky with a lot of wasted space in all that air. However, spaghetti is fine if bulk is a problem, although the Italians might have something to say about putting the right pasta with the right sauce.
Here are a few of my favourite sauces.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca (Whore's spaghetti)
This is a good one for the food dryer if you want to prepare it in advance and it then makes a good backpacking dish. It dries to a leathery consistency and reconstitutes perfectly. The instructions below assume you will cook from scratch at camp.
Olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 anchovy fillets, chopped
14 oz tin tomatoes
150g pitted black olives, chopped (you can get these tinned, which is fine for this recipe)
4 tbs capers
parsley
Put some water on to boil and when boiling add the pasta. Bring back to the boil then set the pasta pan aside whilst you make the sauce.
Fry the garlic and anchovies in olive oil until the anchovies disintegrate and the garlic is translucent. Add the tomatoes, olives and capers and cook for five minutes. You may have to bring the pasta back to the boil to finish it off but when it is ready, drain the pasta and add the sauce before serving.
Mixed peppers and onions
This is a fairly common staple of lazy camp cooking. All you need is a couple or three peppers (yellow and red work well together) and a large onion. Fry the onion in a generous amount of olive oil then add the peppers and cook until done as you like it. Combine with a pasta of your choice.
Broad Beans and bacon
This is another "house" favourite (with beans from the garden) that translates just as well to the camp site, if you can find the ingredients. Broad beans can be bought in their pods when in season or frozen when not. Peas work just as well, some would say better. The bacon can be of the lardons type or cut up slices; if you can get smoked bacon trimmings then all the better.
All you need for the sauce is to fry the bacon until the fat runs then add a chopped onion and fry until soft. Add the beans or peas and cook for a short while and then combine with cooked pasta. You can add a little of the pasta cooking water to make a runnier sauce.