Being married to a Chef I have been introduced to some unusual foods. I am very willing to try just about anything and this makes traveling to another country easy. In Italy we have tried hot ricotta???, uncooked sausage???, dandelions??? and other items of interest.
We are always so grateful for whatever is in season! Eating in Italy is never the same depending on the time of year you travel. For example in the summer I can never eat enough Caprese salad filled with lovely tomatoes, fresh basil and soft mozzarella. In the fall, it is wild boar!!! Last October I ate wild boar in every way imaginable and could not stop.
In the summer we spent another glorious day with Heather Jarmin of www.Sapori-e-Saperi.com visiting a cheese maker (see “While we’re on the subject of cheese” previous post). We spent the end of the day gathering an ingredient for the pasta that would be made for dinner. So we set off to pick our “nettles”.
She handed us all a pair of gloves and a plastic bag??? The gloves she said were to protect us from the poison! POISON? I thought we were going to eat these gatherings?
Nettles, also known as “stinging nettles” do indeed. The weed looking green plant has tiny hairs on it and if it grazes your hand or arm you are going to sting and itch for awhile. It contains acids, histamine, and other debatable toxins in the hairs.
Nettles have been used for centuries for medicinal purposes healing everything from hay fever, gout, pancreatic cancer, arthritis and more. Nettles have been a character in folklore too-rub on you to keep ghosts away, men eat it for fertility, or stick some under your pillow for good luck on a full moon night?
Caterpillars love them and some horses have been known to eat nettles but other than that they make great shade for insects…oh, and a nice pasta filling!!!??
Yep-only my foodie friend Heather would have discovered after only 30 seconds of boiling nettles you can cook and season them like any other “green”. They make a nice lasagna, fill pasta or ravioli, put in white bean soup like you would spinach, etc etc…
We can now spot a nettle a mile away…they are very common in Tennessee or Tuscany…but careful, they live up to the name! Who ever thought you would say ouch and yum all in the same meal?
Gathering nettles in the Garfagnana…
Close up
Below is a closer picture of a bundle of nettles…
And when you are done…you can eat this!
Yum, boil and serve
