Spaghetti sauce help needed

Posted by: hootyhoo

Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/15/07 05:12 PM

I love spaghetti, but the sauce is too heavy. I do not buy the Mountain House type stuff( not in my budget) -- I have a dehydrator, could I get good results buy drying my own.

Any suggestions?
Posted by: Slosteppin

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/15/07 05:19 PM

I would think so, it's not somethng I have tried.

I make soups that I dehydrate.

If you haven't already, you might try the website: http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/

I suggest get some you like and put it in the dehydrator.

Slosteppin
Posted by: PaulTheSlow

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/15/07 06:29 PM

hootyhoo:

I have dried various brands of spaghetti sauce with excellent results. I have an American Harvest dehydrator that I bought from Campmor maybe 15 years ago, and I have used the "Fruit Roll-up Sheets". I just spread the sauce evenly on the sheet (maybe 16 ounces of sauce per sheet/tray) and dry at the veggie setting for 24 hours (variable by sauce contents, humidity, etc.). I transport by folding the resulting sauce "roll-up" and sticking it into a ziplock with any additional ingredients, such as dried mushrooms. Rehyrdration can be assisted by ripping up the dried sheet into smaller pieces.

The resulting rehydrated sauce has been remarkably like the original. I'd suggest giving this a try at home first, like all backpacking recipes, but this is one of my favorites, and it's incredibly easy.

Paul
Posted by: sarbar

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/16/07 10:31 AM

Love drying pasta sauce <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Only tip is avoid Vodka sauces as they have more fat in them. (Though...they are so tasty!)

Anyhoo, I dry a jar on 2 parchment paper lined trays. When the top is pretty much not sticky anymore, I pop the "leather" and flip it over, so that the underside gets dried as well. I do it on 135* usually.

Once dry, I usually powder it in my blender. This helps it come back to life faster.

I also measure it out evenly into 2 servings, and bag it in quart freezer bags. Each serving will coat 4 ounces of pasta perfectly.

Rehydration? Now that can be a bit tricky, but it isn't too hard. Lets say a jar has 3 cups sauce. So that is 3/4 cup sauce for each serving! So take your dried sauce and start with 1/2 cup boiling water, and then add up to another 1/4 cup water as needed <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Easy cheesy!

As for the pasta? Even simpler! Precook your pasta (but cut off 2-3 minutes time), drain and rinse. Then dry till hard at 135*. Bag 4 ounces in a quart freezer bag. To bring back, pour boiling water over, and let sit for 10 minutes in a cozy, drain and add sauce and cheese. Also very good with home dried hamburger and mushrooms added......
Posted by: Haiwee

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/16/07 12:21 PM

I just dehydrate spaghetti sauce until it's a leather -- just like fruit leathers. I don't even boil it to rehydrate it. Just pour the desired amount of water over it and let it sit for an hour or so, then heat it up. One suggestion: don't vaccum-seal tomato leathers in your FoodSaver. It compacts the leather into a hard, almost impossible-to-rehydrate clump.
Posted by: billk

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/16/07 07:05 PM

I dry the spaghetti and sauce together, then rehydrate more or less like you would a freeze-dried dinner. That is, I put it in a Ziploc bowl, add boiling water, cover, place in a cozy, and wait ten minutes or so. Obviously, good homemade spaghetti is best, but I've even done it with Stauffer's.
Posted by: hootyhoo

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/17/07 05:40 PM

Thanks for the good info. I did not think about pre-cooking the pasta. Looks like there is some experimenting to be done.
Posted by: jshannon

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/18/07 06:40 AM

A wealthy man was having an affair with an Italian woman for several years. One night, during one of their rendezvous, she confided in him that she was pregnant. Not wanting to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he would pay her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child. If she stayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18. She agreed, but asked how he would know when the baby was born. To keep it discrete, he told her to simply mail him a post card, and write "Spaghetti" on the back. He would then arrange for child support payments to begin.

One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife. His wife said, "Honey, you received a very strange post card today."

"Oh, just give it to me and I'll explain it," he said. The wife handed him the card and watched as her husband read the card, turned white and collapsed.

On the card was written: "Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Two with meatballs, one without! Request bread..."
Posted by: sarbar

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/18/07 09:46 AM

Lol..that is good and cheezy <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />
Posted by: midnightsun03

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 06/18/07 01:21 PM

Would that me mozzarella or parmesean?

SNORK

Thanks for the laugh js...
Posted by: markswarbick

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed Better Thought - 12/02/07 08:40 PM

I am repeating an idea I found on another blog. You can take your favorite sauce "lets say two cups and put it in the food dryer. First take the fruit leather tray and use a light canola cooking spray and then add the sauce. This will help with seperation later. crush the flakes into a rough powder. Second instead of pasta which can take longer to cook, use ramen without the packet. Most supermarkets now carry gormet mushrooms and add dried burger for a complete meal. hope that helps for an alternate idea.
Posted by: frank

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 12/03/07 06:21 AM

I do the same.

I grow my own tomatoes. I puree them in a food processor and then reduce them in a cast iron pot. By reducing them it cuts down on the dehydrating time.
I use a lot of garlic and pepperocino (pepper flakes) and salt. It is a very simple sauce.

Once it becomes a leather I break it up again in the food processor and then grind it to a fine powder in a coffee mill. Then it can either be used as a sauce alone or combined with a pasta and cooked and dehydrated as a one pot meal.

frank
Posted by: sarbar

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed Better Thought - 12/03/07 09:17 AM

Parchment paper lining the trays works better in my view. No oil needed then <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> It peels off when done (and for me, I peel the leather off when it isn't "wet" anymore and flip it over. Gets it dry faster and no wet spots!)
Posted by: cwmoore

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - how to dry soup? - 12/05/07 10:21 AM

not trying to hijack the thread, but I've been considering getting a dehydrator, and soup was one thing I was wondering about. how do you dehydrate something so 'wet' ?

thanks in advance
Posted by: sarbar

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - how to dry soup? - 12/05/07 11:49 AM

If you can cook the soup down, so much the better. Place it on lined trays - either with fruit leather inserts or line with microwave wrap. It will dry up nicely usually.
Posted by: thomasz

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 05/21/08 11:43 PM

Is parmesan better than mozzarella?
Posted by: sarbar

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 05/22/08 01:09 PM

The Parmesan sold on the shelves is mostly shelf stable. You can carry it without worrying.
Posted by: Earthling

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 05/22/08 04:00 PM

Quote:
Is parmesan better than mozzarella?


You asking this Italian <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Depends on your purpose for it. Hard grating cheeses like Parmesan or Grano Padano carry easily in your pack in a nice hunk, with a tiny grater. Mozzerella is best eaten fresh, like within a day or so of it's being made. Fresh mozz' is one of life's luxuries IMO <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> Once you've eaten it fresh, you'll easily recognize when a resturant tries to pass off 'pizza cheese' on your entree as 'fresh mozzerella <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Iz luvs me cheese <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Posted by: Earthling

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 05/22/08 04:04 PM

Quote:
I love spaghetti, but the sauce is too heavy. I do not buy the Mountain House type stuff( not in my budget) -- I have a dehydrator, could I get good results buy drying my own.

Any suggestions?


Hooty, Ragu now makes and sells a good sauce in a ziploc type bag <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> makes it easy to pick out your favorite pasta, and lug along the ready made sauce <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> yeah, it's heavy, but i backpack to eat well, and vice versa <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> Very worth the food weight IMO.
Posted by: stonemark

Re: Spaghetti sauce help needed - 01/11/11 08:43 PM

you can't made the two ends meet~ heavy&durable/ light&fragile ~