Backcountry Delight

A camp-kitchen upgrade. 

If you’re like us, you secretly love rehydrated backpacking meals. One, they’re super easy to make. Two, there’s almost no cleanup involved. And three, they taste better and better all the time. But sometimes you want a fresh meal when you’ve been hoofing it through the backcountry. Here’s a simple recipe to try:

Pizza & Calzones (serves 2) 
Yeast crust:
1 tsp. dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup flour

Sauce: Spaghetti sauce

Possible toppings: Fish; wild onions; bacon or ham bits; sausage; jack, cheddar, or mozzarella cheese crumbled or thinly sliced 

Instructions
Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar and salt. Add flour and mix to make a stiff dough. Oil a fry pan and spread dough in pan with oiled fingers to form a crust. Turn up edges to hold sauce. Pour sauce over crust, and top with cheese and any other toppings. Cover and cook on a backpacking stove on low heat until crust is golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Be sure to move the pan in a clockwise rotation in quarter turns to evenly heat all parts of the pizza. 

Alternative cooking method: Put the crust in a pan and cook for about 10 minutes. Flip, spread with sauce and cheese, cover, and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.

Calzone variation: Spread flattened dough in pan and cover one half with desired toppings. Fold other half over the top and pinch edges together to seal in toppings. Cook for about 10 minutes on each side.

This recipe was adapted from NOLS Cookery. Fore more backpacking recipes, visit store.nols.edu.