Spring Leaves 3 Nettle Risotto - Vegan recipe

 For those who don't eat animal products, a creamy effect can be got by cooking a potato with the rice. This is not unusual in the south of Italy, where rich grazing is harder to come by. Sprinkle with poppy seeds or with toasted sunflower seeds for an extra tang and a protein boost.

Ingredients

• 2 litres of young, fresh nettles
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 1 litre good vegetable stock (I usually add a teaspoon of marmite to my stock)
• 1 glass white wine or fino sherry. Bramble or a rich dandelion wine is good for this  
• 300 g short-grain rice. Arborio is best for this.
• I small potato, peeled and cut into pieces
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Fresh chives or parsley, chopped
• Poppy seeds, or toasted sunflower seeds

Fill the sink or a washing bowl with cold water. Wearing rubber gloves, submerge the nettles. Wash thoroughly, changing the water once or twice.

Strip the leaves from the stalks. Discard stalks.

Shake excess water from leaves, place in a pan with a pinch of salt, and cook briskly until leaves are soft and quantity has reduced.

Drain liquid from nettles into the vegetable stock.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the chopped onion. Soften over low heat until translucent.

Press the last drops of liquid out of the nettles into the stock.

Peel the potato, cut it into quarters, and add to the vegetable stock.

Transfer the stock to a saucepan and simmer.

Chop the drained nettles, add them to the onion, and cook for one minute on a low heat, stirring constantly.

Add the rice to the onion and nettle. Cook on a low heat until the edges of the rice grains begin to turn pearly.

Stir in the wine.

Using a ladle or slotted spoon, transfer the pieces of potato from the stock pan to the rice.

Ladle enough liquid from the stock pan onto the rice and potato to just cover it. Stir gently. As the rice absorbs the stock, keep adding a ladleful at a time. You need to stir the rice and potato pieces enough to prevent sticking, but not so much you break them.

When all the liquid has been absorbed the rice will be plump and fluffy and the potato pieces cooked. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with black pepper, the chopped green herbs, and the poppy or sunflower seeds.

Traditionally, a risotto ‘rests’ for a minute after this before it is served.

Serves 4.

Spring Leaves 2 Nettles (Vegetarian recipe)

Round my way the nettles are springing up, about 4-5 inches long and as green as a very green thing - which is what they are... Time for some cautious foraging with gardening gloves, long sleeves, and scissors.
Snip off the top half of the young nettles (or about one third, later on in the year) leaving the lower stem and leaves. Plastic carrier bags are OK to carry them in, providing they are not left sitting in them too long. Calculate quantities as if the leaves were liquid.

Nettle Risotto is a dish from the Abruzzo, the mountainous spine of Italy, a region of poor soil, harsh winters and an inventive local cuisine. To me it has the pure taste of spring: green herbs and a little fresh cream from the first milking to make it really luxurious. It’s vegetarian.

• 2 litres of young, fresh nettles
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 30 g butter
• 1 litre good vegetable stock
• 1 glass white wine or fino sherry. Bramble or a rich dandelion wine is good for this.  
• 300 g short-grain rice. Arborio is best
• 3 tbsp cream
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Fresh chives or parsley, chopped
• 40 g grated parmesan cheese

Fill the sink or a washing bowl with cold water. Wearing rubber gloves, submerge the nettles. Wash thoroughly, changing the water once or twice.

Strip the leaves from the stalks. Discard stalks.

Shake excess water from leaves, place in a pan with a pinch of salt, and cook briskly until leaves are soft and quantity has reduced.

Drain liquid from nettles into the vegetable stock.

Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the chopped onion. Soften over low heat until translucent.

Press the last drops of liquid out of the nettles into the stock. Transfer the stock to a saucepan and simmer.

Chop the drained nettles, add them to the onion, and cook for one minute on a low heat, stirring constantly.

Add the rice to the onion and nettle. Cook on a low heat until the edges of the rice grains begin to turn pearly.

Stir in the wine.

Ladle enough liquid from the stock pan onto the rice to just cover it. Stir gently. As the rice absorbs the stock, keep adding a ladleful at a time. You need to stir the rice enough to prevent sticking, but not so much you break the rice grains.

When all the liquid has been absorbed the rice will be plump and fluffy. Remove from heat. Stir in the cream. Sprinkle with black pepper, the chopped green herbs, and the parmesan.

Traditionally, a risotto ‘rests’ for a minute after this before it is served.

Serves 4.

Risotto with Nettles by Anna Del Conte

This is a terrific book - a memoir with recipes - which I noticed at my local library (and here's a cheer for local libraries - defend them against the cuts!) the day after I had written my Wild Brews column for Smallholder's April edition.

The thing is, my column was mainly about nettles, including a recipe for Risotto Alle Ortiche - Nettle risotto. That's why her title kind of hit me in the eye as I came up the stairs to the upper library and saw her book displayed.

My recipe version is a little different from hers though, mainly in the addition of a glass of wine to the rice at the translucent stage, and being slightly less buttery. I learnt mine in the Abruzzo, whereas hers comes from further north, in Piedmonte: that may account for it as pasturage is poorer further south.

Foraging in the fields, and foraging in libraries, bookshops and on my own over-crowded shelves are not disimilar activities.