Deep green nettle gnocchi are a great way to celebrate spring. Unlike typical gnocchi you're probably familiar with, these are a rustic, peasant gnocchi called malfatti that include no potatoes or flour.
Instead of potatoes and flour, these stinging nettle gnocchi are made with dry breadcrumbs, egg, and plenty of freshly grated parmesan cheese.
How to Make Nettle Gnocchi
The nettles are steamed, cooled, chopped, pureed in a food processor with eggs, then mixed with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. After the dough rests you roll them out like regular potato gnocchi.
Cook and serve the gnocchi with butter sage and parmesan, or a brown butter mint sauce as pictured below.
Nettle Flavors
- Common stinging nettles have a rich oceanic flavor.
- Wood nettles (Laportea canadensis) will have a stronger taste I compare to apple blossoms.
Thanks to my friend Ellen Zachos who turned me onto a version of these in her book The Foragers Pantry.
Italian Bread and Stinging Nettle Gnocchi (Malfatti)
A traditional, rustic Italian gnocchi made from nettles, cheese, breadcrumbs and egg. Serves 4 as a light appetizer or two as an entree. Scale as needed.
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 331kcal
Cost: 5
Equipment
- 1 pot with steamer basket
Ingredients
- 4 oz nettles (½ cup packed, cooked nettles)
- Pinch of kosher salt
- A few scrapes of fresh nutmeg to taste
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ¾ cup (scant 3 oz) fine dry breadcrumbs preferably sourdough (gluten free breadcrumbs are fine here too)
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg
- All purpose flour or equivalent for rolling the gnocchi
To serve as pictured
- 1 recipe nettle gnocchi
- 1 cup homemade tomato sauce
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1.5 Tablespoons spearmint, thinly sliced wild or cultivated
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 3 Tablespoons grated parmigiano reggiano or your favorite parmesan cheese
Instructions
Gnocchi
- Prepare a pot for steaming. Wash and dry the nettles. Add the nettles to the pot and steam for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the nettles and cool spread out on a tray. Roughly chop the nettles, then puree in a food processor with the eggs, cheese, nutmeg, and pinch of salt. Scrape the nettle mixture into a mixing bowl, add the breadcrumbs, mix well, cover and rest for an hour. The dough should be firm enough to shape, and not sticky, if it is, knead in some extra breadcrumbs.
- Separate the dough into 4 balls. With floured hands, roll the dough out into ½ inch logs. Cut the logs on the diagonal with a bench knife, lightly dust with flour and reserve on a baking sheet. From here the nettle gnocchi can be cooked or frozen until needed.
- To cook the gnocchi, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi and cook for 3-4 minutes until they float and are cooked throughout. When they float they will still need another couple minutes to cook through.
To serve as pictured
- Warm the tomato sauce, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. Meanwhile, heat the butter in a frying pan on medium heat until it darkens and smells toasty. Add the mint, pinch of salt and pepper and cook for 20 seconds. Add the wine to the brown butter and turn off the heat.
- Cook 4 oz of gnocchi per person in a boiling saucepan of salted water for 4-5 minutes. They need to cook for a few minutes after they float to the surface. Transfer the gnocchi to the frying pan with a slotted spoon and toss with butter.
- Divide the tomato sauce between four small soup bowls. Divide the gnocchi evenly between them, spooning the excess butter over the top of each. Garnish with a chiffonade of mint if you have some and pass the parmesan.
Video
Notes
Other Wild Greens to Use
Instead of nettles, this recipe can be made with other wild greens. Ramp leaves are particularly good.Breadcrumbs
You can use panko, but it should be ground fine in a spice grinder.Variations
Add things to the gnocchi to make a more filling meal. Sautéed mushrooms, fried bacon, sausage, etc.Nutrition
Serving: 5oz | Calories: 331kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 182mg | Sodium: 741mg | Potassium: 382mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1512IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 359mg | Iron: 3mg
Abi
Hey Alan,
Thoughts on using potato flour our flakes in place of the AP flour for a gluten free version?
Thanks for your time and work in these beautiful recipes!
Alan Bergo
Hi Abi, I’m Gf too. I use GF ap for most applications instead of regular AP. As this recipe uses breadcrumbs, I’d use dried ground up GF bread. My favorite version is a GF sourdough made in Mpls by a company called Heaven. They ship. 🙂
Dusty
I've been trying to take advantage of my nettle patch more and more each year, but am still unsure about the stems. When you finished steaming your nettles, they went off camera and came back chopped.
Did you worry about removing the stems at that point or just include everything?
Alan Bergo
Think of nettles as a cross between a leafy green and a small vegetable. The whole thing is used. In the summer you can collect nettle tips which are good too. There’s lots of other recipes in this site that illustrate the process of you need more examples, too.
Keith L
Made this for dinner last night. Unlike a lot of recipes online, this gnocchi recipe worked wonderfully. I mixed in 1 oz of ramps to 3oz of nettles. I did browned ramp butter, so no mint.
Will be putting a few meals in the freezer for the winter. Thanks chef!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Keith. Yeah these freeze like a dream. Mixing matching the plants is fun-good call on the ramp greens.
James
Hi Alan, this looks great. Going to try it soon, but I don't have scales - any idea for the conversion of 4oz nettles into volume (packed/unpacked cups)?
Alan Bergo
I added the conversion. A good rule of thumb is that cooked greens will always be the same volume as water. 4 oz = 1/2 cup packed, cooked nettles.
James
Thank you! I made this last night and it was excellent. The mint sauce was so good
Stephanie
Do you think purple dead nettle could work in this? That seems to be all we have where I am. Thanks!
Alan Bergo
Many, many plants can be used here. If you like the taste of deadnettle, yes, you could use them. I might blanch them instead of steaming though, but that's personal preference as they have a stronger flavor.