Dead nettle isn't the same as true nettles - completely different plant.

With nettles, in Ireland, we eat the young tops until St Patrick's Day, after which the Púca is said to have pissed on them, making them rank in taste.

They're delicious sautéed in butter, and in a soup - the same soup recipe as spinach, with a little fat rice (say, arborio) and onions and nettle tops fried in butter, then stock added, and a grind or two of nutmeg, with salt and pepper. Very nice with crusty bread and butter.

What is all this about them stinging when cooked? I've never had that happen!

I wouldn't personally use them in colcannon, which I make with curly kale, mmm.