Nettle season

Spring means the stinging nettles start growing. Since we have a lot of stinging nettle around here, it makes sense to make use of the free food. Plus, they are really, really good for you. G. offered to do the cooking if I did the harvesting. I own gloves, so I was more than happy to agree. We decided to try nettle ravioli with nettle pasta and nettle filling. 

The nettle patch after I harvested a lot of nettle because I didn't think to take a before picture.

They need to be blanched before using them because the heat removes the sting. And like so many greens, what looks like a lot to start with becomes not quite enough after cooking. 

G. making the ravioli with the nettle pasta dough. I had G. use semolina flour instead of the white flour the recipe called for. 

The finished ravioli. They are boiled and then have a garlic and butter sauce put on them. 

The inside. They were filled with a combination of nettles, marscapone cheese, and cooked potatoes. While they were good, we all decided that if we were to do them again a better filling would be just nettles and ricotta cheese. The combination of marscapone cheese and potatoes was pretty bland. 


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