Foraging has been a big deal in cuisine for the past few years. I would do it myself but being from Italy I don’t know the local area that well and I might get eaten by a coyote if I wandered out looking for ingredients. Fortunately, one of my friends is one of the best chefs in California and he foraged some stinging nettles for me.
I wanted to do something crazy with them so I made a savory nettle panna cotta. Panna cotta is normally a dessert of course but this was savory, and it was really good. Then I topped the panna cotta with some sea urchin. The combination of savory stinging nettles and sweet and briny sea urchin was delicious. We sold out that night and guests have been asking for it again.
I am very grateful to my friend for getting me these. And it was a very inexpensive dish to make…other than the Grade A sea urchin, of course.