What a beautiful day in the sunny southwest of France!  Cool, misty morning, then sunny with clear skies, low humidity and not a cloud in the sky.  What else is there to do but to fire up the Weber kettle?  Locally, zuchini has been coming on strong for a few weeks, eggplants and peppers have just begun to arrive. On the fish monger’s stall, a beautiful clear-eye maigre, a firm-fleshed white fish from the Bay of Biscay.  Not exactly sure what maigre is called in English – Alain Davidson, in his seminal book “North Atlantic Seafood”, calls it Channel Bass or drum fish, neither of which have I ever heard.  In any event, it grilled up perfectly.  I served this with some leftover nettle pistou that I had in the freezer from a previous meal.  Yum!

Here is one idea of how to serve nettle pistou. These favas where so young and tender, I didn’t bother to peel them.

Nettles pop up in our yard pretty much any place we leave to grow wild.  Which is fine by me, as nettles are not only very useful in organic gardening, they are also one of pleasures of the spring table.  We save the tender new leaves for recipes, and chop the tough, older stems and leaves for energizing our compost pile of for macerating in rain water for purin.

There are many great ways to cook nettles. I have enjoyed them in a white bean soup with bacon and nettles.  They can take the place of spinach or sorrel in a cream sauce to accompany fish. But my favorite way to cook them is as pistou.

Pistou is the French version of pesto and is usually made with basil and pine nuts. However, I think that the mildly menthol flavor of nettles, paired with walnuts and lemon zest, makes for a milder pistou that goes well with lighter spring flavors.

When harvesting nettles, be sure to wear heavy gloves to avoid getting stung by them.  Once they are blanched, the leaves no longer sting.

Just added to the menu at Café Presse this morning: Cold salad of marinated white beans, roasted Delicata squash and Brussel sprouts, black currants and kale-parsley pistou, served with your choice of grilled marinated Portobello mushroom VG or olive oil poached Alaskan Pollock filet.