Pasta Con Salsa Caruso

Another famous dish from Uruguay adapted for backcountry enjoyment

I made this unusual pasta dish on the 3rd night of my Florida Trail section hike. It normally would’ve been too much for me to eat by myself, but hiker hunger was starting to kick in, and it honestly tasted too good to stop eating. I would say that normally this should satisfy 2 average hiker appetites. Everything packaged together weighed 17 oz., which split between 2 hikers isn’t bad at all. And as a bonus, no fresh ingredients are required.

My 0.6 and 0.9 liter pots were adequate to the task, but not by much.

INGREDIENTS:

2 packets of ghee

1/2 cup dried portabella mushroom (in small ziploc)

1 1/2 TB all-purpose flour (in mini ziploc)

enough Nido or Milkman powder to make 4 oz. of milk (in small ziploc)

3 TB of Hoosier Hill heavy cream powder (enough to make 4 oz.) in small ziploc

2 oz. grated parmesan (this was 8-10 of those small packets you can get from Packit Gourmet)

1/2 cup freeze-dried diced ham (for example, Redwick’s)

mini ziploc containing a pinch each of salt, black pepper and nutmeg

8 oz. of pasta (shells work great)

1 packet of beef broth (Packit Gourmet)

1 oz. chopped walnut (in small ziploc)

Optional: Litehouse dried parsley for garnishing

All together it looks like this:

DIRECTIONS:

1. Splash water on the ‘shrooms. Add 4 oz. water to each bag containing milk and heavy cream powder.
2. Cook pasta in 0.9L or similarly-sized pot, set aside.
3. Melt ghee in 0.6L pot, then stir in the mushrooms for 1 minute.
4. Slowly stir in flour, cook until golden.
5. Slowly whisk in the milk and cream.
6. Add beef broth packet but no additional water.
7. Continue cooking the sauce over low to medium heat while stirring continuously.
8. When sauce is thickened, remove from heat and slowly stir in the parmesan cheese.
9. Add ham and walnuts.
10. Pour sauce over pasta, top with parsley, and serve.

Pro Tip: This is so good that if you are cooking for two, you should negotiate in advance for your partner to clean the pots afterwards. They won’t be complaining.