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Our daughter tried making this last week, and passed it on during a Mothers’ Day call.
Bringing a bagful of spring debris to dump over the edge of the steep hill above our marsh today, I saw hundreds of fresh nettles emerging from the leftover stalks of last year’s fireweed, devil’s club and dandelion. I got some rubber gloves and a colander, and went to work.
We have been making our own pesto from homegrown basil for almost thirty years. Recently, we’ve started making cilantro pesto, and two weeks ago I made some arugula pesto. Pestos are a great way to put perfectly ripe but overly abundant spicy greens into long-term storage.
You need to take care handling the nettles until they have been blanched. After that, they are of no concern, but wash all the bowls and such that come into contact with the raw nettles.
For this batch, I combined what was about four cups of uncooked leaves (cooked down to a cup and a half of blanched, drained and de-moisterized nettles), a third of a cup of olive oil, two large garlic cloves, two-thirds of a cup of pine nuts, and two teaspoons of sea salt.
It passed the taste test. It tastes more like blanched spinach than anything else I can think of. It is less fragrant than the pestos I’ve made before, as they are uncooked, whereas this is blanched.
We will try it tonight, mixed with Bulgar wheat, alongside barbecue roasted Ling cod.
17 Comments
Interesting: please do let us know how it works out.
I have not heard of this but very interesting. Please do let us know how this ends up.
I will. Headed out to watch the partial eclipse.
ET, in case you hadn’t heard this about cilantro (and a different recipe to consider).
Maybe I’ll grow some more. Already growing two big batches. Here’s a photo I took last summer.
Great idea, eat your weeds! We have trouble here in Toronto with an invasive species called garlic mustard. Makes great pesto. Doesn’t even need garlic (but I added some anyway), made some with walnuts and put it on potato gnocchi. Very nice and satisfying on several levels.
Know someone who makes mint pesto. Now there’s a way to make use of a proliferate
weedcrop. Haven’t tried it myself but it sounds promising.Went on a wildflower ident walk in April with local environmental group. Chilly rainy day so few showed up. Those who did put me & my friend to shame. Great foragers, very knowledgeable.
My goal is to be a novice-intermediate on as many subjects as I can become familiar with. So I appreciate this diary in my current quest to eat natural. Raw milk my latest addition.
Thanks ET.
Wow, u got lots of it. where I live-San Diego,CA- it’s a staple of mexican cooking so it’s always available and lots of it cheap.. It’s also known as chinese parsley.
When I first made it, it was too thick for my taste but I came across this idea- “Lastly, extra olive oil can be added to thin out the pesto and make a great salad dressing.”- and will do that.
For years we just made basil-based pesto and used it mixed with pasta and parmesan. Then we started mixing it with oil for dressing. Then, using cilantro or arugula or nettle.
We’ve also mixed it with more oil and mayonnaise for dressing. And for coatings on sea scallops after they have been blackened. Or – pesto plus mayo plus whitefish caviar on Portobello mushrooms.
I coated a halibut fillet with mayonnaise, bread crumbs, pesto and cheese and then baked it. Worked just fine.
I recently crock-potted some fish in the crockpot, with pesto, this recipe. Really nice to come home to dinner. I used a wild leek pesto from my local farmer’s market.
“Doesn’t even need garlic (but I added some anyway)”
I like your style 8^)
The recipe worked. Ms ET cooked a fabulous meal. The nettle pesto, mixed in with Bulgar wheat, had an interesting taste. She cooked the Bulgar in chicken broth, adding some finely diced, almost caramelized onions. No cheese.
I think next time I try this, it will be mixing cilantro and nettles in the pesto. There really needs to be some uncooked herb in the mix to give pesto the immediacy it deserves.
My mouth is still stinging in a nice way. The Fetish 2008 The Watcher Shiraz helped bring out the unique aspects of the pesto.
A friend who I sent this link to responds with the following:
GARLIC SCAPE & TOASTED PUMPKIN SEED PESTO
[ Gluten-Free / Soy-Free / Dairy-Free / Vegan / Pareve ]
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, untoasted and unsalted*
Approximately 15 garlic scapes, raw or lightly sauteed
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp nutritional yeast
Optional: ground black pepper to taste
Place pumpkin seeds in a dry, preheated skillet over medium flame. Stirring frequently, allow pumpkin seeds to toast until they brown slightly. They will puff up and start popping. Remove immediately from heat and pour into a bowl. Allow them to come to room temperature.
Cut scapes into 2 inch pieces. Add all ingredients to food processor and blend until smooth. Add warm water or additional olive oil to thin, if desired.
Stinging nettles can be made into soups as well.
It occurs to me that a bit of lemon or lime added to the mix might perk it up. Let us know!
Like a vichyssoise?
We do that with cilantro and arugula pesto. We’ll certainly have lots of nettles with which we can experiment in a couple of weeks.