Why In The World Would You Dehydrate Cooked Pasta?

Ready to Store

Many people have asked me about dehydrating pasta. Primarily, they want to know why, if it’s already dry, would anyone bother dehydrating cooked pasta. 

Macaroni Tomato Green Pepper Casserole



From This ...

  

To This!



 

 

 

 

Ingredients

I’ve been experimenting with one-dish meals I can dehydrate and use later.  Almost everything in this casserole can be dehydrated except for the cheddar cheese and butter.  I’ve put together meal packets with all the components in one large bag.  This meal serves two large or four small portions (depending on your family and appetite) 

Linda’s note: each ingredient needs to be bagged separately because when putting the dish together, something different is done to each item. 

Ingredients (each bagged separately):

• 2 cups cooked dehydrated elbow macaroni
• 1 cup dehydrated tomatoes
• 2 tbsp dehydrated onion
• ¼ cup dehydrated diced bell pepper 

Fresh Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 tbsp butter
• 1 ½ to 2 cups grated cheese

Rehydrate these ingredients separately:

• Tomatoes in 1 cup water
• Onions in ¼ cup water
• Bell peppers in ½ cup water

It will take several hours to rehydrate your veggies.  I put mine on to soak just before lunch and refrigerated them until it was time to fix supper. 

 

Directions:

·         Cover pasta with boiling water and set aside for fifteen to twenty minutes 

Rehydrated and Drained

In the mean time, drain the veggies and reserve the liquid.

·         Gently sauté the onions in the butter. This will take about ten minutes on med low heat.

·         Add the tomatoes and continue to simmer about ten minutes. You will need to add a little of the reserved liquid to keep them from sticking. 

 

Saute in Butter

Sauté the bell peppers in a separate pan.  Then spread them in the bottom of a 1 ½ quart oiled casserole.

1 ½ qt Casserole

·         Drain the pasta and mix with the tomato onion mixture. Pour on top of the bell peppers. 

 

Mix Pasta & Tomatoes

 

YUM!

Bake on medium heat until the cheese is melted on top.

 

 

 

Compound Butters

Here is an interesting way to use those wonderful home-dried herbs.

If you go to really nice restaurants or specialty delis, you can find seasoned butters… at VERY high prices.  However, making your own butters are so easy, you’ll smack your forehead with “why didn’t I think of that!”

You can put together a custom-blended compound butter in less than ten minutes.

Basically:

• Mix your desired herbs and spices into the butter.
• Room temperature butter
• Place butter into mixing bowl with paddles
• Add desired spices and herbs
• Mix until well blended
• Roll it in plastic wrap to make a tight sausage shape.
• Refrigerate or freeze to make it firm.
• Then slice and use.

By the way, this is a great opportunity to use that wonderful micro plainer, if you happen to have one.  Use it to zest lemons, oranges, or other citrus into your butter mixtures.