Nettle Lasagna. It’s one dish I make several times in the spring. Nettles are high in iron and many nutrients including calcium, manganese, magnesium, selenium, zinc, and potassium.
As I’m a big fan of getting the medicine of plants to the people in a way they will happily take, so that healing can occur, nettle lasagna is a such a flavorful way to get the health giving benefits of nettles into your family and friends. It’s always a crowd pleaser!
I remember back when I was in the early 30s, I was a nanny for a family who had mixed thoughts about me being an herbalist. They were both in the medical field, she as an ob-gyn and he as a researcher in the cardiac field. As time went on, they began to understand more about what I was all about and we grew close.
I taught their son the difference between berries and wild plants that he could eat and those that he needed to avoid. I can still hear his voice in my ear as he stretched his little hand out to wild berries, asking to pick them. “Berries, berries!” he would say whenever he saw the wild blackberries in his side yard.
One day, I invited them over for dinner and prepared my world famous nettle lasagna. They were thoroughly enjoying it when I told them that they were eating nettles that I had picked in the wild. The dad thought it was the coolest thing and their son ate it like it was going out of style.
The nettle lasagna can be made in advance and frozen, or freeze leftovers (if there are any!) in single serving containers for nutrient dense lunches.
This recipe is from scratch. You can use a jar of spaghetti sauce from the grocery store, but try making the homemade spaghetti sauce. The taste is more than amazing, and the homemade sauce is not at all hard to make.
I’ve included my grandma’s egg noodle recipe. Now that I’m dairy and gluten free, you’ll see the options to create a wonderfully tasting nettle lasagna.
It took me some time to find the alternatives that tasted good and am passing that info to you, dear friends. My dairy free and gluten free lasagne tastes soooo good and even my husband who can eat anything, bless him, loves this recipe!
Nettle Lasagna
Ingredients
Tomato Sauce:
- 10-12 large heirloom tomatoes – cored. Seeding is optional
- 1 medium onion – roughly chopped
- 2 – 4 garlic cloves – depending on your taste. I always go big!
- 6 – 8 fresh shiitake, cremini, or reishi mushrooms - chopped (optional, but I always use them for their good immune boosting medicine)
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 1 tbsp. each fresh oregano and thyme leaves
- 1 1/2 tsp. nettle salt (see herb salt recipe) or sea salt
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/4 cup parsley – minced
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 bay leaves
Noodles
- 1 cup either organic wheat flour -or- Namaste brand gluten free flour
- (If you use gluten free flour, add 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum, even if it's already in the flour. Trust me on this, as it will make the gluten free noodles pliable and easy to work with. Otherwise, you may have stiffer noodles that frustratingly break and crumble.)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp. minced fresh nettle leaves
Lasagna Filling:
- 6 cups fresh spring nettles – chopped
- 4 ounces nettle pesto
- 1 lb. mozzarella - shredded or sliced
- 4 ounces ricotta cheese or 4 ounces of goat or sheep feta cheese - crumbled
- For those who are dairy free, I've found that Miyoko's brand plant based mozzarella is the only one that tastes even close to the real thing and it melts well. Get the one that looks like a block of mozz, not the liquid one. That one is very weird. I can't explain it, but it gives me digestive upset.
Optional:
- 1/2 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 lb. pork sausage
Instructions
- Put the tomatoes in the blender and blend for one minute. Add the rest of the tomato sauce ingredients except for the bay leaves and pulse until smooth. Pour into in a heavy pot, add the bay leaves, and simmer on medium low, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has reduced substantially. This should take about 2 hours.
While the sauce is simmering, make the noodles.
- Put the flour in a bowl, make a well and crack the eggs in the well. Then add the salt and minced fresh nettle leaves.
- Stir until the eggs and salt have been completely incorporated into the flour. Turn out onto a floured counter and knead until smooth. This takes about 30 seconds to a minute. If you use the wheat flour, you can either roll it with a rolling pin or put through a noodle maker to thin it to 1/8-1/4 inch. I do this in 2 batches, splitting the round of noodle dough into 2 equal pieces.
- If you use the gluten free flour, wrap in plastic wrap (or other tight wrapping) and allow to rest for an hour.
- As with the wheat flour, you can roll it out thin or put it through a noodle maker. Personally, I do either way. I don't cut into strips, but roll the noodle dough to the dimensions of the lasagne pan.
- You'll end up with 2 big noodles! Put them into salted boiling water and let them boil for 7 minutes, then strain. Run cold water through the noodles to keep them from sticking to each other.
Next:
- Brown ground beef and/or pork sausage and set aside. Optional, but super yummy.
When the sauce and noodles are ready and the rest of the ingredients are prepared:
- Put about a 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the tomato sauce and a couple dollops of nettle pesto. in the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Stir the pesto into the sauce and evenly spread to cover.
- Add one cooked lasagna noodle, sauce, nettles, dollops of nettle pesto, cheeses and the optional meat.
- Do the same with the same layer, starting with the other noodle and ending with cheeses as the final topping.
- Bake at 400° F for 30 - 40 minutes covered, then uncovered for 10 minutes or until bubbly all the way through.
- EnJoy!
