Asparagus and Wild Garlic Quiche

Quickly, before you cannot harvest wild garlic for another year, I want to present you with my Asparagus and Wild Garlic Quiche.

The wild garlic is a plant that is widely spread in most European countries but also in the Central and Eastern region of the USA. For cooking you generally use the green leaves, which have a scent and flavor of garlic, hence the popular name of the plant. However, if you live in a part of the world, where wild garlic is not available, don’t worry because you can easily replace it with rocket salad. And if you don’t want to miss out on the garlic scent and flavor, just add one or two crushed cloves of garlic.

Anyway, for me, asparagus and wild garlic are my most favorite kinds of spring vegetables. So it was perfectly obvious that I’d come up with a recipe which includes both of them sooner or later. And here it is now, my asparagus and wild garlic quiche.

Now, here is the recipe:

Asparagus and Wild Garlic Quiche

For the pastry:
250 g all purpose flour (2 cups)
110 g butter (1/2 cup)
1 egg
¼ teaspoon salt (use less if you use salted butter)

For the filling:
50 g butter (1/4 cup)
3 eggs
250 g ricotta (1 cup)
150 g crème fraiche (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon)
50 ml of the asparagus cooking water (1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon mustard
salt, pepper, grated nutmeg
3-4 spring onions
100 g wild garlic (or rocket salad)
50 g grated parmesan (1/2 cup)
500 g green asparagus

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan-oven/350°F/gas mark 4.

For the pastry put all the ingredients (2 cups flour, ½ cup butter, 1 egg, salt) in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is very crumbly. Turn onto the working surface and bring the dough together by hand. Knead shortly until it is smooth. Put it into the fridge (for about half an hour) while you make the filling.

Cut off the dry, tough ends of the asparagus. Cut the stems in thirds and set the heads aside. Bring some water to the boil, add the asparagus stems and cook for 3 minutes. Add the heads and cook for another minute. Drain, but keep about 1/2 cup of the cooking water for later.

Beat the butter and the eggs until well combined. Add the ricotta, crème fraiche and the cooking water. Season with mustard, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Clean the spring onions and chop them. Rinse the wild garlic and chop it. Add the spring onions, the wild garlic, the grated parmesan and the cooked asparagus to the egg-ricotta mixture and gently fold everything in.

Grease a quiche tin with butter and dust it with flour. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to a round that is larger than your quiche tin, as you want to line the sides of the tin, too. Use a rolling pin to lift it up (roll the pastry up with the help of the rolling pin) and drape it over the tin. Press the pastry slightly against the bottom and the side of the tin. Cut off any overhang of pastry. Pour the filling into the pastry and bake the quiche in the oven for about 40-50 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Here’s the recipe for printing: