Wild About Spring Dandelions!

It may still be snowing where you live, but here in Italy where I live, signs of spring are more and more evident each day. It’s not only the more frequent sunny days and the buds on the trees. For me a true sign of spring is when I see foragers. Nowadays, these foragers are made up of mostly elderly people, who walk in fields with bags and a knife, bending and cutting wild dandelion and radicchio greens. They are holding on to traditions. This takes me back to my childhood in New England. My parents were first generation Italian immigrants and they foraged for wild dandelions in the spring too. I loved to go with mom and this family tradition seemed very normal to me until I became a teenager. One nice man stopped to congratulate my mother for cleaning up the weeds at the park one day and that’s when I realized we probably seemed very odd to people who had never had the pleasure of tasting my mother’s wild dandelion frittata. My parents taught us how to enjoy the flavor of bitter greens and vegetables.

Everything is seasonal and if you follow the seasons, everything you need to live the natural cycle of life is before you. Winter was a time in the olden days when people consumed more fats, meat, stews and root vegetables. The springtime was time to cleanse the liver with bitter greens like dandelions. Now, you can find cultivated dandelions at the grocery store and they will work fine for this recipe. However, although they are called dandelions, they really are chicory and they are not wild, meaning they have been tinkered with over the years. If you have the time to go foraging, find a nice clean spot, harvest the dandelion plants that do not have buds or flowers and use a sharp knife to cut around the root so the whole plant comes out of the ground. And if foraging is not for you, this recipe can be made with any green of your choosing. Here is my mom’s recipe, with one twist. I added cooked einkorn wheat berries because the addition of a chewy grain inside makes for a more complete and wholesome meal. You can also substitute with a gluten free grain, like brown rice or buckwheat.

Wild Dandelion Frittata with Jovial Einkorn Wheatberries

INGREDIENTS

• 8 oz. of thoroughly washed dandelion greens
• 6 cups of pure water
• 1 small spring onion, minced
• 4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 6 medium eggs, beaten
• ¾ cup jovial einkorn wheat berries or other whole grain of choice, uncooked
• salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cook your grain according to package instructions. Drain and set aside to cool.
2. Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan, then cook the washed greens for 10 minutes.
3. Lift the greens from the pot with a slotted spoon and reserve the cooking water.
4. Sauté the onion in 2 tbsp. of olive oil on medium-low heat until softened, then add the greens and cook for 3-5 minutes.
5. Combine the greens with the grain in a large mixing bowl. When this mixture has cooled, add the eggs with salt and pepper to taste.
6. In a medium cast iron skillet, heat 2 tbsp. of olive oil on medium heat. Pour in the egg mixture, cover and let cook for 5 minutes, checking after 3 minutes to see if the eggs are browning too much. If they are, lower the heat.
7. Place a large, flat plate on top of the skillet, then grab the handles of the skillet and the plate between two kitchen mitts. Quickly turn over the skillet and slide the uncooked side of the frittata back in the pan.
8. Cook on low for 5 minutes. Serve warm or cold.