Last week has been a nightmare for me. Nothing seemed to be going as it should and I was feeling totally helpless.
I lost my wallet, broke my favourite plate, went out with people I hated, I was caught in the rain without an umbrella and I forgot a cake in the oven…
That same week I bought some nettles from the market and without noticing I was eating it every day! I used them to make a soup, in dumplings, infusions, with a potato fritter (see pictures below) and finally I tried them in a calzone...
And then I realised, It was the nettle that saved the day, it was literally the only highlight in the darkness of my misfortune.
Don’t want to sound like a phony philosopher but I think nettle represents life itself. It can be really painful if you don’t know how to approach it but if you take it the right way, it can turn to be a wealth of beautiful things.
Well, that’s a pretty phony statement but please forgive me and think of it as an excuse to introduce the following nettle calzone recipe.
Nettle and Mint Calzone
(For 1 large or 2 small pizzas)
Pizza dough:
- 150 g flour
- 100g semolina
- 15g fresh yeast (or 7g dried yeast)
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Nettle filling:
- 80g feta cheese
- 15g grated parmesan
- 150g mozzarella for pizza
- 80g nettle
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp dried mint
- 1 small pepper
- black pepper
- olive oil
- optional: sultanas
Mix the yeast with some water.
On your tabletop put the flour, semolina and salt. Make a hole in the middle and pour into it the olive oil and the yeast. Start folding the mixture with your hands and add tepid water bit by bit while mixing. When the dough starts to form, knead it for 10 minutes so it becomes smooth and elastic. Make into a ball and cover with a cloth or cling film. Leave to rise for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven at 200°C.
Fill up a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Drop the nettle into the water and leave for a few minutes. This will destroy the stinging hair. Remove put in a sieve. You can gently press the nettles in order to squeeze out as much water as possible.
Roll out the dough into a disc and place all the toppings on one half. Fold in two and use some water to seal both halves together.
You can brush some olive oil over the calzone to get a nice golden colour on the crust.
Put in the oven for about 20 minutes at 200°C.
I don't know if I've had nettle, they don't seem to be very common over here. But the filling looks terribly delicious. I hope everything is going better for you now after your nightmare week.
ReplyDelete@leaf: you can use any ingredient you like really, depending on what ou fancy. I'm trying to forget this horrible past week wtih some good food although the weather doesn't help!
ReplyDeleteThe only good thing about a crappy week is waving it goodbye!
ReplyDeleteI really like your use of bold flavours. The nettle, mint and feta combo is inspired.