Stinging Nettle Pizza inspired a pizza making contest of sorts, with the common ingredient being something we forage from our property each spring – stinging nettles! (a.k.a. Urtica dioica) If you’ve never had them, stinging nettles are quite nutritious. But harvesting them is a challenge because they really do sting! If they get you, the sting doesn’t subside for a while, so once you recognize them, you learn to stay away. How did anyone ever become inspired to try to eat them?
I was listening to a radio broadcast the other day where an herbalist was explaining that different plants have distinct energies which communicate their benefits to us. I wasn’t really convinced until I plunged the stinging nettles (using tongs, of course) into a pot of boiling water to dissolve their barbs – the whoosh of steam was heady with a good-for-you vibe. The message was loud and clear. OK, so someone got close enough to get a whiff of them and had the notion that they might be a healthy thing to eat, but how did they figure out that a dunk in boiling water would dissolve the stinging needles? Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtica_dioica) doesn’t weigh in on this point.
Anyway, Ron harvested the nettles (with leather gloves), I blanched them, and we made pizza. Ron’s go-to for pizza is anchovies; mine is crumbled Italian sausage. We each topped a pizza, baked them, sliced them, and shared them. My pizza was much tastier, not so salty; I won this round, which is rare, so I’ll take it!
Stinging Nettle Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 bunch stinging nettles
- 2 parbaked pizza crusts (see note)
- pizza sauce
- crumbled Italian sausage (or anchovies, if you choose)
- onion
- yellow or red bell pepper
- mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Prepare the stinging nettles – Using tongs, carefully plunge the stinging nettles (stems and all) into boiling water, then immediately remove them and rinse them with cool water to stop the cooking. Let them drain a bit, then pull the leaves off the stems and squeeze them as dry as you can by the fistful. Give them a rough chop and set aside.
- Preheat the oven and spoon pizza sauce onto the crusts – Preheat the oven to 500℉, convection bake setting. Spoon a thin schmear of pizza sauce on each crust.
- Add your toppings of choice – add your toppings of choice, in your desired order. I typically add the sausage, then the nettles, then the veg, then the cheese, then gently push down with my palms so it will merge into an integrated melange.
- Bake the pizzas – slide the pizzas into the preheated oven and bake for 8 minutes.
- Slice and serve – Pull the pizzas out of the oven one at a time using a pizza peel. Slide the first one onto a cutting board for slicing and slice the second one right on the peel. Eat!
Notes
