Walking the greenmarket on Wednesday, I was surprised to see nettles still in season. Usually appearing in March, at the beginning of spring markets that close in the winter, nettles are an incredible source of protein as well as being a folk remedy for all sorts of things.

If you should find nettles, I like to buy two bags/bundles (about ~1/2 packed cup of leaves in each).

Use the first to make nettle pesto: blanch the leaves (take them off the stem with gloves or a paper towel, they sting a little) for a minute, then drain and dry. Pulse 1 clove garlic in food processor until minced, add the nettles, 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan, and 1/4 cup of pine nuts. I like the pesto on strozzapreti (the pasta shape that means “strangled priests”), below.

Then, with the other bundle of nettles, make your favorite brothy soup (vegetable stock, garlic, onion, diced potatoes are a nice base), stir in the nettles, and top with some of the remaining pesto (without the pine nuts, the pesto becomes a pistou), perfect for the drizzly weather we’ve had in Brooklyn lately…

Related posts:

1. pppsst: spsp (summer pesto squash pasta)
2. kthread cooks: tomato pesto
3. fantastic crudité

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Posted by Kristen Taylor on Friday, June 26th, 2009, 12:27 pm * Filed in Food, Market. * Tags: kitchen, kristen, kthread, nettle, pesto, recipe, soup, taylor. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.