I remember my first childhood encounter with stinging nettle all too well. My family was camping up in the bluffs above the California coast for the weekend and I had found a ground of kids to play a campground-wide game of hide and seek with. When the countdown began, we all took off flying on our bikes to find the best bit of shrubbery to launch ourselves into. Can you guess where I decided to hide? I came out of that game victorious, but absolutely COVERED in painful bumps all over my hands and ankles – the only parts of me not covered by my jeans and hoodie. They may have provided some nicely dense cover, but the stinging nettle means serious business.
I now know how to spot stinging nettle a mile away thanks to that little adventure. It looks rather innocuous in its young state and can often be confused with nettle-leafed goosefoot, but there are a number of slight differences. Just look closely at the stem and leaves, and you’ll see that the nettle is completely covered in little stingers just waiting to attack your unsuspecting bare skin. It stings through nitrile gloves as well, which I learned the hard way today. It also usually can be found sprouting out of the ground in one single shoot with leaves coming off it, whereas nettle-leafed goosefoot has a bunch of little branches all over the place. I guess you can always just touch it and see if it’s the real thing, but I seriously do not recommend that method.
I’ve been curious about cooking with stinging nettle for a while now. My first thought of course was – won’t it sting my poor, defenseless mouth? In short, yes it will, if you don’t blanch it first. By blanching the leaves before doing anything with stinging nettle, you break down those awful little spines so that they can’t attack you anymore. Take that, evil plant! After that you can use it exactly like you would fresh spinach or basil. It tastes somewhere between a more woody spinach and a lot like chickweed if you’ve ever tried it. This recipe uses pine nuts as its main nut of choice, but if you’re looking for a more wallet-friendly option, you can replace them with almonds or cashews for a similar flavor. I’ve tried it with walnuts before, but they were a bit too bitter for my taste.
I adapted this recipe from Naked Cuisine.
Makes about 2 cups of pesto.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups fresh stinging nettle leaves
- 1 cup basil leaves
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup pine nuts
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Kitchen Tools: food processor, saucepan, fine mesh strainer
Prep Work:
- Heat up a pot of water to boil just like you would for a small batch of pasta. Fill a large mixing bowl with cold water.
- Once water is at a full rolling boil, submerge the nettle leaves and blanch them in the boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute until they are bright green.
- Strain the leaves and plop them into the cold water bath for 2 minutes to stop them from cooking further.
- Strain the leaves again and place them into the food processor with all of the ingredients.
- Pulse until smooth, adding extra olive oil as needed for desired creaminess. (I like mine a little chunky)
- Voila! Your pesto is complete. Now slather it on some homemade bread, toss some pasta in it, or eat it with a spoon!
