How to collect nettles and tips and tricks for cooking them

Perfect for culinary preparations of all kinds: here’s how to collect nettles (without pricking yourself) to enrich your recipes.

Known to most for its stinging properties, nettle is one spontaneous plant which lends itself to being used in many recipes. Here are the tips for harvesting nettles and some curiosities about their properties and uses in the kitchen, for mouth-watering dishes!

How to collect nettles without stinging yourself

The first thing to keep in mind, given the irritating power of nettles, is not to touch the plant with bare hands but always remember to use gloves. Nettle generally grows in the countryside and in mountain, which is why it is good that you choose to collect it in areas away from city traffic. Keeping these small precautions in mind, you simply have to collect the nettle tops with scissors and cook or dry them.

The best times to harvest nettles are the primavera and thefallseasons in which the new shoots grow and the tenderest buds can be harvested.

How to cook nettle

After having seen how to collect nettles and the properties of this spontaneous plant, it is important to remember what nettles can be used for in the kitchen. In addition to infusions, decoctions and healthy herbal teas, nettles are perfect for enriching omelettesrisottos, soups and tasty first courses such as gnocchi or fresh pasta.

The nettle, in fact, can be used both for the sauce and to color the pasta. In any case, before cooking, remember to always handle the nettle leaves with gloves in order to avoid annoying itching.

Nettles: properties and benefits

Particularly rich in mineral salts (potassium, phosphorus, iron) e vitamins (A and C) Nettle has been a plant used since ancient times for curative as well as culinary purposes. This plant, in fact, is rich in nutrients and trace elements which make it particularly suitable for the preparation of infusions and herbal teas. If you don’t have the opportunity to collect fresh nettles, you can buy them already dried in herbal medicine.

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