USING PINE IN THE KITCHEN
Pine has many culinary uses, with chefs and foragers prizing the needles, nuts, pollen and young, unripe pine cones. The needles are used to make tea or to flavour vinegars, oils, sugar and cream. Young pine needles, picked in spring, can even be added raw to salads.
Another popular use is mugolio, an Italian syrup made by fermenting young, green pine cones (harvested in late spring) with sugar. And, of course, there’s pesto, which traditionally uses pine nuts.