The implication is that a phenylethylamine could be produced by substitution of malonic ester with the appropriate benzyl chloride analogue, nitration, hydrolysis, and reduction of the resulting nitro compound.
You don't need ethylnitrate for that. In Post 499541 (https://www.thevespiary.org/talk/index.php?topic=11630.msg49954100#msg49954100)
(Rhodium: "Archive of "Wanted References" Volume 2", Novel Discourse) you can find a paper entitled "Synthesis of alpha-functional nitrocompounds by the nitration of activated carbonyl derivatives in two-phase system" which was kindly retrieved by Azole and where 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds are nitrated with nitric/sulphuric acid. However, I'm not so sure that such a biphasic system would prevent the nitration also at the phenyl. (The paper is in Russian.)
Is there any information on psychoactive effects of amino acid analogues of phenylethylamines?
The amino acid analogue of DOM is inactive and experiments did not show signs of in vivo decarboxylation. The active transport system for amino acids probably does not even recognize ring substited phenylalanines and beside this there is nothing else that could make such aminoacids pass the blood-brain barrier and be decarboxylated to an active species.