Spring is all about the wild, young greens so vibrant and tempting after the long, barren winter. Besides salads, where delicate leaves such as ramson, celandine or dandelion are best consumed fresh and raw, there’s a variety of traditional dishes where one can enjoy the more rough ones such as nettles or docks in cooked versions.

This recipe here came about unexpected, as I have been making a lot of the traditional nettle dish this spring. One day friends were announced for lunch and so that morning I put a handful of cashews to soak. After a few hours, between preparing other dishes, I blanched the nettles (without even removing the stems), thrown them in the food processor over the cashews and added olive oil, quite some lemon juice and, at the end, two small bundles of lovage – what was to give the very special flavour to this dish. I guess some fresh ground pepper could also work in there.

The pesto turned out so rich and yet so fresh, that I decided it needed a patent :)) We had it next to potatoes and coleslaw and of course some fresh spring leaves. Enjoy it too!