Hungry Time

This is always the hungry time of the year when all the last of the purple sprouting broccoli has finished and we are still weeks away from the first of this year’s harvest. The shooting season is over and the trout in the rivers are yet to take a fly readily so it really is hard times!

One thing that is a bit unusual but delicious is to make pizza from the humble nettle. It is one of my favourite soups and by all accounts is full of vitamin C, iron and natural histamines. It is said that the nettles have more nutritional benefit when they are young before they flower. Only pick the tender tops mind you.

I recommend you try it as it is easy to find and identify nettles and takes no time to throw together.

The recipe I use is as follows.

Preheat oven to the max! The hotter the better


250g of pizza dough for each big pizza (you can find recipes in any cook book or online)
2 big handfuls of nettles for each pizza.
100g of grated mozzarella cheese
Garlic infused extra virgin olive oil (or simply use the plain oil and 1 clove of garlic chopped)
A few blobs of Ricotta cheese




Roll your dough out and place in a floured baking tray. Brush the garlic infused olive oil onto the dough. Sprinkle the mozzarella on the pizza and then place the nettles tops on the mozzarella. Finish it off with some ricotta, salt and pepper.

It should take just under 10 mins to cook. But beware and keep an eye on it so the toppings don’t burn.
I have always had better success with really thin bases as the heat in a domestic oven isn’t anywhere near that of a commercial pizza oven.