In my backyard and surrounding paddocks grows a healthy population of stinging nettles. It’s a weed, and it’s an invasive species, but it’s one of those rare problem plants that you can eat away at, literally. It’s loaded with healthy antioxidants and minerals and stuff that I know nothing about but heard about somewhere. Look, the reality is that it’s free, natural and grows like wildfire. So it’s a yes for those times in winter and spring when there isn’t much going on in the greens department. Nettle tastes similar to spinach and makes a killer pesto (which is in my first book. Go buy it. Now). The idea of the pesto is to blanch the leaves to remove the toxic sting, squeeze the water out, then, just as for basil pesto, simply blend with some olive oil, salt, garlic, grated parmesan and nuts of some kind, and voilà! Pesto. It can then be used on pasta, in salads, with roast vegetables or here on a pizza. Any why put it on a pizza? Well, I reckon you can put almost anything on a pizza and kids will eat it. And really, that’s where a lot of my efforts go – towards getting my kids to eat real food.
Years ago I was in a northern Italian town called Bergamo and ate a pizza topped with basil pesto and thinly sliced potato. It was cheesy and full-flavoured, and has remained in my memory ever since. I love making this style of pizza. It’s never as good as my memory implies, but for now it will just have to do. Nothing beats a great food memory.