Wild asparagus

Asperge sauvage

What it is

The spears come from a spiny evergreen shrub of Mediterranean scrub, not from a cultivated bed, and they are thread-thin and markedly more bitter than anything grown for market. In Spain they go into a revuelto — eggs barely set — which takes roughly as long to cook as the spears do.

In the kitchen

Snap them rather than cut, and give them under a minute: they are already bitter and heat concentrates it fast. Fold them into eggs off the flame and the bitterness reads as depth instead of as a fault.

Goes with

Egg Olive oil Garlic Serrano ham Sherry vinegar Manchego

Same species

Asparagus Purple asparagus White asparagus

In season alongside

Dandelion greens Fiddlehead fern Good King Henry Huauzontle Kale Black bryony shoots

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