I love nettles!

Granted, today was my first experience with them outside of tea, but after today, I can see that nettles and I are going to have a long and lovely relationship.

We received some nettles in our CSA box, and C, knowing that I was intrigued at the idea of eating something that was going to do its darnedest to fend me off with its sting, grabbed a few extra bunches from the “trade” box at the pick-up site.

Given that this was my first time with nettles, I did some research and found that the only real consensus on nettles was that you had to cook them to remove the sting. Okay, fine, we can work with that.

I also learned that some people had tried doing a version of pesto using nettles. I figured you couldn’t go wrong mixing a green with loads of garlic, pine nuts, parmesan, and olive oil, so that’s what I did.

To do what I did, you’ll need the following:

  • a bunch of nettles, well washed, leaves removed from stems (be careful, and do your research on how to handle the leaves
  • a bunch of spinach, washed and de-stemmed
  • garlic cloves, at least 3, though I think more is better
  • toasted pine nuts, and maybe a few walnuts, almonds, or other nut of your choice
  • parmesan
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

What to do:

  1. wash your nettles and spinach
  2. boil some water, and cook your nettles in the boiling water for about five minutes
  3. drain, and dump nettles into a food processor
  4. toast your pine nuts and walnuts either in your oven or on stove top
  5. add toasted nuts to nettles, and pulse in the food processor
  6. add garlic, spinach, and parmesan, along with some salt and pepper - proportions are really up to you here, if there’s a pesto recipe that you like, use it as a guide, I usually wing it
  7. whiz that all up, then turn the processor on and add a steady stream of olive oil till it’s your desired consistency
  8. toss with pasta and enjoy

One note: Last year, I came across a pesto recipe that suggests putting diced potatoes in with the pasta when you cook it, so when you toss with the pesto you’ve got pasta, potato, pesto happiness. I’ve taken to doing this, and highly recommend it. I generally use small red potatoes, and cut them to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 inch cubes - skin on. Basically, you want them small enough that they cook in same time as the pasta does.

So there you have it - stinging nettles and spinach pesto. Enjoy!