Savory Nettles & Ricotta Pie
All throughout the Mediterranean and SWANA region various iterations of this dish occur- the combination of greens, herbs, eggs, and some kind of cheese (often ricotta or feta) for the ultimate peasant food that's deeply nourishing and draws on seasonally and bioregionally abundant ingredients. Spanakopita from Greece comes to mind and Pizza Rustica, Torta Rustica, and Torta Salata Ricotta e Spinache from Italy do too. And there are many more!
Young Nettles (Urtica dioica)
This is my take on that ancestral culinary tradition using Nettles in place of the spinach in a traditional Italian ricotta pie. Modern recipes often call for spinach....but the truth is that of course traditionally these pies and dishes were always filled with wild greens! Things like Nettles, Borage, Chicory, Fennel, Dandelion, Lambs Quarters, and more. As I was picking the Nettles for this dish, washing the duck eggs from our hens, and then warming the milk to make the ricotta (a simple and easy process if you have time!) I was thinking about how even these basic steps took a large part of my day before I even made the pie itself and- once again- was struck with deep reverence for my ancestors who not only picked and washed the herbs and made the farmhouse cheese for the filling but also milked the cows/goats/sheep, tended to the livestock, and potentially even ground the wheat to make the flour for the crust or were given a tiny allotment of flour from the vast amounts of wheat they grew and had to give to the feudal lords. Wow. It’s a lot. What would they think of me a few generations later making the same healing foods from the land out of choice and not necessity? And of course there are folks still living very close to the land throughout the world today who work through these many steps of food preparation today that I don’t want to discount or overly romanticize either. It’s hard work.
Young Nettles (Urtica dioica)
For me this food as medicine is a part of my ancestral work. As we hurl towards the future with the speed of development increasing every day and so much “progress” just for progress’s sake and generally not for the health of the planet and its inhabitants, I find that cooking dishes with weedy greens like Nettles from the land reminds me of my humanity and grounds me into the landscape I live in and my ancestral body- it’s a way to marry the two. The one that wasn’t disconnected from ancestral lands, even 100 years ago, and the current body living here are a settler on indigenous Nipmuc and Pocomtuc land. It helps reckon those incongruities. It’s simple and yet profound medicine. It’s a spell.
Savory Nettles & Ricotta Pie
This dish is springy and delicious. Recipe below for the filling and you can use your crust of choice! Any classic pie crust recipe will do or you can use a puff pastry crust for this dish, which is traditional in lots of southern Italy, or even use filo dough to make it into a spanakopita-type pie. Also, this dish is SO folky and is meant to be altered and honed to your tastes, landscape and gardens. Adapt it to use combinations of the greens and the herbs you currently have on hand, are abundant in your bioregion, or are special to your ancestral traditions.
Ingredients:
8 cups fresh Nettles, packed
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 c ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2 cloves chopped garlic or 2 tbsp chopped green garlic
1/4 c parsley or herb of choice (chives, dill, mint, fennel, field garlic, etc), chopped
1/2 tsp sea salt & 1/2 crushed red pepper (or to taste)
Directions:
1. Wash the Nettles and then blanch in boiling water for 60 seconds. Strain and let cool
2. While the Nettles cool blend the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, blending the eggs before adding.
3. Once the Nettles are cool press them with your hands through a strainer to squeeze as much water as possible from them. Save this gorgeous emerald juice and drink it!
4. Chop the Nettles finely by hand or blend in a food processor until well-chopped. Then add to the Nettles to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well
5. Put in a pie crust of your choice and you can add a top to the pie if you’d like, which is how this is traditionally made in Italy
6. For a classic pie crust bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 min. Delicious warm or at room temp and makes an amazing spring picnic food
Enjoy!
Looking to deepen your herbal learning with a community of like-minded plant lovers? Or just want to say “thanks” and help support this blog? In addition to our in-person classes, we also offer online learning through our Viriditas Community on Patreon! Membership starts at just $5/month and you’ll gain access to our huge class library, teatimes, live medicine-making gatherings and more when you join!
Nettles growing in the Madonie Mountains of Sicily
