This delicious, comforting, high calorie and high protein recipe is the first dinner we posted on the website and it is still our favourite hiking meal, perfect at the end of those biggest, toughest days!

Pot of pasta with meat sauce. — IIngredients (Makes 8-10 serves to fit a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator):

3 onions
a knob of garlic
4 celery stalks
2 red capsicum
Fresh chilli to taste
2 carrots
Bag mushrooms
1 - 1.5 kg lean mince (beef, kangaroo, chicken, turkey or vegie)
1 large eggplant
2 large zucchini
2 cups red wine
400g tomato paste
Bay leaves
1 chopped tbspn each rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, and basil.
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 kg macaroni or any short non-nesting pasta (we use high protein)
Plus olive oil and powdered parmesan added after rehydrating on the track.

This recipe makes 8 - 10 serves. I have added extra vegetables to make this a more balanced meal and, because the veg are ‘sneaky veg’, chopped finely and almost unidentifiable, it’s great for kids if you omit the chilli. I omit milk from the classic recipe but you could add half a tablespoon per serve of milk powder after dehydrating to boost the fat, protein and calcium content and smooth the mouthfeel. We prefer kangaroo mince as it is more sustainable than beef mince. Goat, chicken and vegie mince are also more sustainable.

This hearty recipe takes about 25 minutes to rehydrate, but if you want an instant version that works as lunch, see our Instant Bolognese Recipe.

If you make eight meals from the above recipe using 1.5 kg of beef or kangaroo mince and high protein pasta, then the meals each contain approximately 965cal/4050 kJ and 94g of protein. Ten meals from the above recipe contain about 770cal/3240kJ and 75g protein each.

With such a a high calorie and protein count, and out of all our dehydrated recipes, bolognese remains our favourite go-to comfort dinner after the biggest and toughest days.

Cheats’ Clever Hacks:

Brown meat, add bolognese jar sauce from supermarket and mix well, dehydrate then add commercial mixed dried vegetables and instant pasta. Or use TVP, or dehydrated TVP. Or use commercial powdered bolognese sachet.

Vegan hack: Replace meat mince with TVP, replace parmesan powder with nutritional yeast.

Method:

Finely dice all vegetables.

Fry first 6 ingredients in a very large pot in scant olive oil until beginning to caramelise. Remove. Repeat with mushrooms. Remove.

Repeat with eggplant and zucchini. Remove.

Repeat with mince, breaking up thoroughly with a spoon. If freezing or using within a few months of dehydrating, continue to next step.

If planning to store at room temperature for up to 3 months (in freezer for 6 months), rinse meat in hot water and drain before next step. Retain this rinse water, skim off fat and use it to cook the pasta.

When well browned, add tomato paste to meat. Cook for a few minutes. Add red wine, and return all vegetables to pot. Add hard herbs and a splash of water if it looks too dry. Season well.

Simmer gently uncovered until thick and any oil begins to separate (there shouldn’t be much, but blot this from the surface with a paper towel). Stir in parsley and basil.

If the sauce remains a bit runny, place in a colander and drain the liquid. Cook the liquid until a little thicker.

Meanwhile par cook pasta in beef or chicken stock or meat rinse water adds flavour for about half the cook time. Drain pasta and mix with meat. Adjust seasoning. We now use high protein pasta for this meal for extra nutritional value.

Dehydrating

Spread your thickened liquid sauce on a silicone or baking paper lined dehydrator tray.

Place one serve of the meat and pasta mix to suit your appetite into a tared bowl and weigh. ***This is your WET WEIGHT A.***

Place this serve on a tray marked with a teaspoon:

Your marked tray will help you calculate how much water to add in camp.

Spread remaining mix onto more trays and dehydrate at 63C (145F) together with the thickened liquid. Turn and separate the meat and pasta mix regularly. Once dry enough, peel the sauce from the sicilcone sheet and flip onto mesh to finish drying.

Once completely dry, weigh the meal on your marked tray again: this is DRY WEIGHT B. Record both amounts. Place all the the dehydrated pasta/meat mix into a bowl ready for packaging. Break the sheet of dry sauce into pieces and powder it in a spice grinder. Place in a separate bowl ready for packaging.

Packaging

Gather your vac seal bags. Into each bag, place your DRY WEIGHT B for a single serve (or DRY WEIGHT 2B for two people). Next, distribute your powdered sauce evenly between all the bags.

You can package for serving size, but you can also tweak for nutritional requirements. If you make 8 meals from the above recipe using 1.5kg/3.3lbs of mince and a high protein pasta, then the meals should each contain around 4050 kJ of energy and 95g/3.4oz of protein. Ten meals contain 770cal/3240kJ and 75g/2.7oz protein each. You can easily calculate percentages from the ten meal serving figures eg five meals will have double the amount, twelve meals will have twenty percent fewer calories and protein.

*Here we have also added a ziploc of shelf stable parmesan cheese.*

Vac seal, but not too tightly or sharp bits of pasta and meat can poke holes in the bag. If you like, add a ziploc of shelf stable parmesan cheese Label the bags with date, dish and approximate amount of water to add. This will be (WET WEIGHT A) - (WET WEIGHT B), or 2A-2B for a double serve, plus a little extra water for the sauce. For two meals of our current recipe, we find that 750ml/25oz is about right.

In Camp

Put the required amount of water in your pot and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, slit open your vac seal bag. Pour boiling water into bag, stir thoroughly, fold over top of bag and secure with a peg or bag sealer. Place into a cosy for 25 minutes.

We add 10ml/0.34oz per serve of olive oil after rehydrating (for two serves), as well as powdered parmesan cheese on top for an extra delicious meal.

Dehydrated Bolognese