Our favourite evil genius Julie is back, with a recipe that she promises will ‘give you the hair and bladder of Gwyneth Paltrow’. Argh! – Jean
One of my children came in crying the other day after being stung by a nettle. This made me both sad and happy as I realized I’ve loads of nettles growing near my house and I’d been meaning to make nettle pesto. I’d recently spent €4.50 on a tiny jar of it at a market and demolished it thinking, in that Irish way, “ Sure, you could make a ton of this for €4.50!”. That didn’t work the day I tried to make marshmallows but I have a selective memory.
So, after some dock leaf rubbing, all was fine and I set about filling a colander full of the stuff. It’s easy to make, the health benefits are huge and (my neighbour confirmed this- although she might have been put on the spot by my eagerly presenting her a jar from the shadows at 10pm) really delicious.
Ingredients (will make 2 medium sized jars):
- A colander/large bowl of nettle leaves (wear gloves)
- A handful of grated parmesan (keep whole if putting in food processor)
- Handful of nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, cashews, whatever nuts you have)
- 5 cloves of garlic, peeled (less if you’re not fond of garlic as it comes through strongly)
- Juice of ½ a lemon
- ½ tsp salt and some black pepper
- Approx 6 good lugs of olive oil
Have a bowl of iced water at the ready.
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Make sure there are no stalks or nettle flowers in the colander (they will irritate the urinary tract). Wash the leaves and place in a large pot of boiling salted water.
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Blanch for 3 minutes then lift with a slotted spoon and put in the ice water to cool and keep green. The sting is now gone.
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Put some kitchen paper on a tea towel and place the nettles onto it, fold over and squeeze the liquid out.
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Put them in a food processor with the other ingredients. (If doing by hand just chop them up, grate the cheese and garlic and grind down the nuts with a pestle and mortar before mixing with the rest.). Process to desired consistency and add more oil if it’s not loose enough.
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Put into sterilized jars (dishwashered or washed and in oven @ 120c for 15 mins). Eat on crackers, pasta, meat, cheese, your hand…but use within 5 days.
Wednesday 19 June, 2013 at 11:44 am
Sounds lovely!
Friday 21 June, 2013 at 4:59 pm
ooo. I have lots of nettles in the garden but only knew about nettle soup which I don’t like the sound of, so this is great. Thanks.
(the nettles are intentional, for butterflies to lay eggs on. Get me, all nature n stuff).