An (Almost) Springtime Lunch

I've been looking for the perfect subject for my Very First Blog Post and after three weeks, have resigned myself to the fact that no such opportunity will present itself. But a springtime Sunday lunch chez moi seems like as good an excuse as any for the momentous First Post. After all, spring is about birth, renewal, optimism, yada yada, the moral of the story is that I'm genuinely excited to have something to cook with besides root vegetables and winter squash and I want to show the fruits of my labor to all of you people.

Spring vegetables: I'm talking rhubarb, peas, artichokes, fava beans, asparagus, and ramps (aka wild baby leeks). I try to eat these things only when they are growing locally, which makes the first ones of the season taste just outrageously good. First day without a coat good. First iced coffee good. First day of outdoor drinking good (okay, maybe not quite that good, but close).

Unfortunately I got a little ahead of myself on the spring lunch idea. It's early April in New York and even though the weather has been in the 70s and 80s, the ground is still cold and the Union Square Greenmarket is still largely sans spring veg. On my Friday morning greenmarket outing, I did manage to snag stinging nettles, arugula, and asparagus.

That's right. Stinging nettles. How exciting. It feels awesome and a little bit survivalist to be cooking with these -- really anything that needs to be handled-with-care/devenomed in the kitchen is an immediate hit with me.

Turns out you can do a lot with the stinging nettle: soup, pesto, stuffed pasta filling, pizza or crostini topping...it tastes a lot like spinach, only sweeter. The key thing to keep in mind above all else is -- and forgive me for stating the obvious here -- if you touch them in their raw state with bare skin, they will leave a sting that lasts for a few hours. While not excruciating it's unpleasant and quite the buzz-kill, as I learned last summer when I accidentally romped through a nettle patch barefoot after a couple of cocktails. Oops.

For today's lunch I made a stinging nettle pesto, and tossed it with homemade linguine. I considered doing ravioli and then decided that I might want to post something that's not completely useless to anyone without a pasta machine and access to wild plants. (if you don't have the time/requisite insanity to make pasta from scratch, store bought pasta of any shape will do just fine). Unfortunately, you are not going to be able to find nettles at your local Safeway...but if you come across some, do consider trying out this pesto as a yummy alternative to the traditional basil version.


Stinging Nettle Pesto

Serves 8

6 cups stinging nettles (2 cups cooked)
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Pecorino-Romano
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Put on rubber gloves.

2. Plunge nettles into boiling water for 1 minute, drain, and squeeze dry.

3. Coarsely chop.

4. Add nettles, garlic, pine nuts, salt, pepper, and 2 tbsp olive oil to food
processor and pulse until they form a paste.

5. With food processor running, drizzle the oil into the mixture in a constant stream.

Voila! Pesto. Just like that.



Also on today's menu:

Roast leg of lamb with mint-parsley salsa verde

Roasted asparagus and arugula salad with farm egg, parmesan, and lemon-rosemary vinaigrette

Country bread

Lemon-blueberry bread pudding with vanilla creme anglaise