A Festival for my Favorite Spontaneous Green
Stinging Nettle Tarts photo S.Philip
At this time of year I am usually finishing up the last of the winter vegetables and am ready for something fresh and green. One of the very first things to appear in the spring is stinging nettles. Nettles are a strong spring tonic, good for people, plants and animals.
The first time I really became aware of nettles was living on the farm in Austira. We had a big patch growing beside an old barn, where they are often found. At that point I wasn’t eating them and of course had an unforgettable experience learning about their sting by running into them. I think it may have been Giordano Venturi www.venturischulze.com who got me curious about trying them when we were their neighbours. Italians love wild greens of all kinds and picking them is an Easter ritual from north to south. I harvest and wash nettles using tongs and scissors but you can also wear gloves to avoid their persistent sting. Once nettles are cooked for 3 to 5 minutes they loose their sting, and can be used as a substitute for spinach in almost any recipe. I started by making nettle and potato soup, then quiches with both pureed and whole cooked nettles. When we moved to Fairburn Farm I had to get used to much later frosts and was not able to grow salad greens 11 months of the year as I had at Engeler Farm. So nettles became even more important as I was trying to cook for my guests, sometimes from sunny California, using only local products in March and April! Each year I try to think of something new to do with nettles. We make ravioli stuffed with nettles and ricotta, gnocchi, sauces for fish and timbales.
In 2006 I expanded my pre-occupation with nettles and held a Festival for the Stinging Nettle and Other Spontaneous Greens of Spring, a bi-annual tradition I will continue this weekend for my last year at Fairburn Farm.
We’ll have a Stinging Nettle Cafe with tarts, soup, and pizza from our wood burning brick oven with a nettle pesto. Biodynamic farmers John and Katy Erlich of Alderlea Farm www.alderleafarm.com will give a talk on the benefits of nettle and their use in biodynamic farming, and I’ll be doing a cooking demo and giving away recipes for an easy to make nettle spanikopita. The festival is Sunday April 18th from 11 to 3 at Fairburn Farm. Admission is $5. for Slow Food members and $10. for non members.
Stinging Nettle Tart
Here is a recipe for the nettle tarts pictures above. If you like you can puree the cooked nettles into the cream and egg mixture to make a custard that is brilliant green.
1 pie crust, blind baked
1 cup of cooked nettles
2 finely chopped shallots
2 Tbsp. of butter
1 cup of milk
1 cup of whipping cream
6 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
Salt and Pepper to taste
Add the pre cooked nettles and a pinch of salt and cook for another minute
In a bowl, whisk the eggs until well beaten and then add the cream and milk, season with a little salt and pepper
Remove the shallots and nettles from the heat, allow to cool for a few minutes.
Line the par baked tart molds with the nettle and shallot and fill with the custard mixture.
Bake approximately 35 minutes on the middle rack of the oven or until the tarts souffle and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.