Essential tool for packing bear can: a hammer or mallet. Use it on your pasta and anything else that can be reduced to crumbs.

Re pasta: Believe it or not, cous-cous is a form of pasta, saves the smashing, and is so much more packable. Once you've gone through the pasta-smashing and crumb-eating bit, you'll remember to buy cous-cous for your next trip! Unlike rice and quinoa, it hydrates instantly in hot water!