As soon as summertime hits, my boys want to know one thing: When are we going camping? The local mountains and lakes are filled with campsites, tucked away amongst the trees, offering endless hours of exploration for curious minds and a reprieve from the valley heat for everyone.

Cooking around a campfire is always an adventure, and we try to come up with novel ways to prepare old favorites to keep things interesting. When I stumbled across Tasty Kitchen member Eat 80/20 Dietitian’s recipe for Grilled Pasta Packets, I knew I had to try it out on our backyard grill. The result? Easy, packed with flavor, and fun to eat. The beauty of this recipe is that you can make the spaghetti ahead of time and pack it in to your campsite. Just assemble and warm it in foil over a camping stove, or on a grate over a smoldering campfire. This will certainly become a new family favorite!

Let’s get cooking.

Here’s everything you’re going to need for this recipe. Quick and easy!

Cut foil into twelve 8- by 12 –inch pieces of foil. You will use two piece of foil for each packet.

Cook the spaghetti until it is undercooked by a couple of minutes. Rinse with cold water and store it in a resealable plastic bag until you’re ready to use, preferably when you’re bundled up together around a campfire.

When you’re ready to go, preheat the grill to medium heat.

Toss the spaghetti, olive oil, chopped tomatoes, garlic and basil in a large bowl.

Divide the spaghetti mixture between the 6 double-layered pieces of foil (about 1 ¼ cups per packet). Squeeze 1 lemon wedge over each each portion of spaghetti and lay the lemon wedge on top of the spaghetti.

Dollop each portion with a few teaspoons of goat cheese.

Starting with the long sides, fold the foil to form a package. Fold over the ends. Avoid squeezing out all of the air from the packages.

Lower the heat of the grill to low heat (or find a cool-ish part of your campfire). Heat the packets until the spaghetti is heated through and the goat cheese is melted, about 10 to 12 minutes, shaking partway through.

Remove from the heat and serve.

Thanks so much to Lindsay for this recipe. Be sure to check out her blog, Eighty Twenty. Lindsay follows the principle of eating healthy foods 80 percent of the time so that you can eat less healthy things 20 percent of the time. I like her already!

Printable Recipe

Grilled Pasta Packets

by Lindsay {Eighty Twenty Dietitian} on June 14, 2012 in Main Courses, Pasta June 14, 2012 Main CoursesPasta

See post on Lindsay {Eighty Twenty Dietitian}’s site!

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Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 6

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Description

This is a camping dinner that is so easy to throw together, and it does not include processed meats. Hooray! Cook your pasta before your camping trip and save it in a Ziploc bag. Then let everyone build their own pasta and toss it on the grill to heat!

Ingredients

• 1 pound Whole Grain Spaghetti Noodles, Cooked For About 6 Minutes, Or Slightly Less Than Al Dente Per Package Instructions
• 6 whole Roma Tomatoes Seeded And Chopped
• 1 cup Fresh Basil Leaves, Coarsely Chopped
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ teaspoons Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• 3 cloves Garlic, Finely Chopped
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 whole Lemon, Cut Into 6 Wedges
• 4 ounces, weight Goat Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Preheat grill to medium heat.

Cut one dozen 8×12″ pieces of aluminum foil. Layer foil so that you are using 2 per packet. In a bowl, toss together pasta, chopped tomato, basil, salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil. Spoon one serving of pasta mixture (about 1 1/4 cups) into the center of each packet. Squeeze lemon wedge over pasta before adding the lemon to the packet. Spoon a few teaspoons of goat cheese into packet.

Bring long edges of foil together, then roll it up to secure it. Roll edges of packet to form a closed space (do not squeeze out all of the air).

Reduce grill heat to low, then place packets on grill. Cook for 10-12 minutes, shaking packets halfway through cooking.

Remove from grill and serve immediately.

Nutrition Information per 1 packet as shown above: 224 calories, 11 g fat, 8 g protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 4.5 g fiber

 
 
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Dara Michalski is a doll and a sweetheart who clearly knows her way around the kitchen. She blogs at Cookin’ Canuck, where she shares her flavor-packed recipes and fun, engaging writing. The photography’s pretty incredible, too.