|S| The making of: 'la Palfichade's' nettle pesto

Nettle pesto

Cutting them into small pieces

Leaves of a young nettle plant!

Drying room for the leaves

Brigitte's main business at the farm 'la Palfichade' are medicinal plants. Stinging nettles are an indispensable ingredient and grow all over the place! Many people see stinging nettles as an invasive weed, but they are actually a delicious and healthy food. Nettles like to grow in marshy wet places, alongside fields , near creeks and moist woodlands. They taste like spinach, only more so – rich with iron and with a deeper, woodsy flavor. The benefits of nettles are f.e. antioxidant, anti-rheumatic, anti-inflammatory, ... Endless!

To make a lovely medicinal nettle pesto, Brigitte uses the five leaves on top of young nettles who are not yet blooming. In these leaves, the highest vitamin contents can be found and the most medicinal power! When harvesting them, you better wear gloves! Let them dry for about two days, which tempers the "sting". Watch out not to dry them in the sun, it will make them become black!

Cut them into very small pieces, add 15 % of the nettle's weight in salt and pour them over with olive oil until they all are drowned. Wait three to four days and the pesto is ready to eat! You can combine it with bread, pasta, rice or add to a fresh salad! Bon Appétit!