Strettine (Stinging Nettle Pasta)

by Dani Lind

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 3 minutes

Serves: 8

This traditional Italian pasta is easy to make in a pasta maker but also can be rolled out and cut by hand. Wear gloves while harvesting and handling raw nettles to avoid getting stung.

Ingredients

½ lb. young stinging nettle tips and leaves (not stems)
2 eggs
Pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1½ cup all-purpose unbleached flour, plus some for dusting
1 cup semolina flour

Directions

Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a large pasta-cooking pan. Add nettles and cook for about a minute. Drain and plunge into a bowl of ice water to cool (the nettles are now safe to handle with bare hands and won’t sting you).
Drain and squeeze as much moisture from the blanched nettles as you can then transfer to a food processor. Add eggs, salt, and pepper and pulse until you have an almost smooth but still slightly coarse puree.
In a bowl, mix both flours together with a fork and pour into a mound on a clean countertop. Make a well in the center of the mound and pour in the nettle-egg puree. Carefully incorporate the puree into the flour with the fork and then knead the dough with your hands for 8 to 10 minutes, adding a bit of flour if it’s sticky or a bit of water if it’s dry. Shape into a ball, cover with a dish towel and let rest for about a half hour.
Cut dough into 3 or 4 pieces and run through a pasta maker according to its manufacturer’s directions, dusting with flour as necessary, until the dough is about 1/8-inch thick. Then cut into linguini or fettucine width. Alternatively, you can roll the pasta out by hand (using plenty of flour to keep it from sticking), roll it up like a jelly roll, cut with a very sharp knife to desired width,” then unroll the pieces and dust them with a bit more flour.
Once cut, the pasta can sit out for a couple hours until you’re ready to cook it, or place it into freezer bags, remove the air, seal and freeze for 3 to 6 months.
To cook, bring salted water to a boil in a large pasta cooking pan and cook noodles for about 2 minutes if fresh or 3 to 5 minutes if frozen, give or take a bit depending on their size, until al dente. Drain and toss in olive oil or butter, simmer in cream, or toss with sautéed wild mushrooms and green garlic. Any way you prepare it, add freshly grated Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

Suggestions Read more about nettles in "Nettles: Friend and Foe." If nettles are not in season, you could substitute spinach and prepare the same way.