Recipe | Wild garlic frittata

There are swathes of wild garlic all over the place at the moment, and it’s one of my favourite seasonal ingredients. It used to line the country lanes around my parents’ house in Derbyshire, and the heady, garlicky scent always takes me straight back to childhood springs.

Even though wild garlic smells incredibly pungent, it has a much more delicate flavour than the conventional stuff, and you can use both the leaves and the flowers. It’s only around for a few weeks each year, so I always try to make the most of this fleeting time by sticking it in everything from salads to pesto. It seems I’m not the only one, and this month’s dose of food inspiration from fellow wild-garlic addict Kym Grimshaw of On The Plate is a delicious frittata that’s packed with the stuff.

Before we move on to the recipe itself, a quick note about foraging. Wild garlic is very easy to find, but make sure you know what you’re looking for so that you don’t pick anything nasty by mistake! Kym has shared her tips here, and they’re well worth reading before you head out.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 large handfuls of wild garlic leaves and flowers
• 6 eggs
• 1 small onion, finely sliced
• 50g gruyère cheese, grated
• butter
• olive oil
• mixed leaves to serve

Method

1. Wash your wild garlic leaves and flowers thoroughly, then drain and roughly chop.
2. Pop a small frying pan over a moderate heat and, once warm, add a knob of butter. Add the onion, reduce the heat, and cook slowly until softened.
3. Add the wild garlic leaves and flowers to the pan, stirring and allowing them to wilt a little over the heat.
4. Whisk the eggs, season well with salt and pepper, and then whisk in the cheese.
5. Add the onions and wild garlic to the egg mixture and stir to combine.
6. Set the frying pan over a moderate heat again. Add a drizzle of olive oil and, once warm, pour in the frittata mixture. Cook over a low to medium heat until golden brown on the bottom, stirring the mixture on top and moving the pan around to allow the runny egg to fill the gaps.
7. After around 8-10 minutes, the frittata should be almost set. Flip onto a plate, then slide the frittata back into the pan to quickly brown the other side.
8. Slice and serve with mixed leaves.

Kym will be back with another delicious dish next month. In the meantime, hop over to On The Plate for more food inspiration, including two other wild-garlic recipes: wild garlic and cheese scones, and chicken, wild garlic and three cheese galette.

All photography by Kym Grimshaw