Stinging Nettle Pasta

I promised I would do a post about nettle pasta. It is easy to make and if you do not have access to fresh nettles, you can always use spinach. Nettles have such a wonderful taste, they are grassier and sweeter than spinach and those flavors really come through with this recipe. I hope you do get a chance to find wild nettles because nettles are so special and so is fresh pasta. The following recipe is adapted from Marcella Hazan’s spinach pasta recipe.

Ingredients
(this recipe is for 1 lb of fresh pasta or 4 dinner portions)
6 cups of fresh nettle leaves
3 cups of unbleached flour
4 large eggs

Asparagus Gratin

So what do I do when I have stale bread and two of my sisters give me fresh asparagus from their gardens and fresh eggs from their chickens? I make this gratin, its easy and delicious! It completely transforms old bread into a really delicious dinner, well you really can’t go wrong with fresh eggs and asparagus and cheese!

Stinging Nettle Pizza

It is nettle season. When I saw the nettle pizza recipe in my Tartine cookbook, I knew I had to go back this spring to get some fresh wild nettles before it was too late. I have made nettle tea and nettle pasta before but I really wanted to try this pizza. Even though nettles are hard to pick, partly because they sting and partly because you need so many, it is worth it. Also, they have many cleansing and healing properties. They are pretty amazing!

Dandelion Salad II & Bouchon Roast Chicken

So I made the dandelion salad again and thought it would be nice with a roast chicken. This time I am using some stale homemade bread that my husband has been making to make some croutons for the salad. (You can take a look at his blog at: www.breadtastic.wordpress.com) I also used “i regali” (the giblets) that I got from the chicken to put on top too, but you could also use bacon or even just use the croutons.

Wild Dandelion Salad

Spring is finally here, and for about a week or two “wild dandelion” season. You need to pick them when they first appear in the ground and they are very young. Here is an easy recipe for preparing your own salad as long as you can get these greens from your yard, or somewhere else that weed killer hasn’t gotten rid of them. Of course I can’t give away where I get mine every year!