Nettle soup

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, October 10, 2009—

WHAT SHOULD WE FIND at the farm market this morning but nettles and chestnuts. I didn't buy any of the latter, though they smelled delicious on this quite cold morning, but we did take home a big sack of nettles, and I made soup. We made soup: Lindsey tore the leaves off the stems, because we don't have any rubber gloves big enough for my Rachmaninovian paws.

I browned a chopped onion in olive oil, added a few cloves of garlic, minced, then a couple of quarts of chicken stock, four potatoes chopped into small dice, and plenty of salt. The nettles, chopped into fairly small shreds, went in about five minutes before time to eat. Delicious. Afterward, those nice limas of Nancy's, and some fine Coho salmon from The Fish Guy; and green salad of course, and figs for dessert.

Rosé, Louis Jadot (Beaujolais), 2007