Difficult times… grass soup, right? Sure, anywhere else. But you’re in Italy… why do grass soup when you can have “white wine stinging nettle risotto with butter and parmiggiano” instead?
Great, except… stinging nettles!? Think again. High iron content, delicate bitter-sweet nutty flavor, ubiquitous in the countryside and freely available. Just remember to use gloves when you pick it!
What about eating it? Wearing rubber gloves again, remove the thicker stalks, rinse it, and blanch it in a covered pan in salted water for a few minutes. It now “stings” no longer. Remove. (But keep its water! And add more water to this, salt just like for pasta, and keep this on the side on a low flame.)
At this point you can use the ortiche for pasta or in a frittata. Or… you can golden some chopped shallots with a plug of butter in a pan, and then add the chopped blanched nettles, mixing all together for a minute or two. Then add your rice for the risotto, “toasting” the rice until it’s nice and hot, at which point throw in half a glass of white wine and stir until it evaporates.
Now, add one ladle of the hot broth (from before) at a time to the risotto, waiting to add another until it gets soaked up/begins to evaporate on a medium-low flame. Repeat, stirring regularly until the risotto is al dente and thick, not soupy! Mix in one more plug of butter and serve with parmiggiano.
Sure takes the sting out of hard times…
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