My favourite Spring quiche is made of  lobster, morels and ramps.

This quiche makes a perfect weekend or cottage lunch (it would also make a great host gift), as it wraps up all the best flavours of spring in one luxurious package that needs nothing more than a simple salad on the side to round out the meal experience. Along with a decent white or rosé, obviously.

Jacob Richler’s Spring Quiche with Lobster, Morels and Ramps

Makes one large quiche (serves 6-8)

1 batch pâte brisée*

1 bunch ramps, washed and blanched

1½ cups fresh morels, blanched

1 small lobster, very lightly poached (2-3 minutes), shelled, cut into bite-sized pieces

100-150 g gruyère, diced or shredded

4 large eggs

500 ml 35% cream

1 tsp kosher salt

large pinch each white pepper, nutmeg

2 tbsp soft butter

Line a 9 or 10” quiche ring on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet with pastry, par-cook in a 200°C (400°F) oven, and let cool slightly. Lower oven to 190°C (375°F). Separate leaves from the ramps, chop and set aside. Sweat the bulbs. Halve the largest morels, and distribute in the quiche shell. Follow with the lobster, ramp bulbs, cheese and minced ramp leaves. Whisk together the eggs, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour over the filling – about ¾ up the sides of the tart shell. Dot surface with dabs of butter. Transfer to middle rack of the oven until surface is puffed and bronzed – about 30 minutes. Rest for 5 minutes and enjoy.

*Most cookbooks on your shelf (and every French one) will have a recipe for the easy, basic pastry pâte brisée. And any of them will do for a simple quiche. But if you need one, this one that I tested and wrote up for Mark McEwan’s first cookbook, Great Food at Home, is fool proof:

2 cups (500 mL) pastry flour, sifted

Generous pinch of salt

½ lb (225 g) butter, cubed, chilled

1 tbsp (15 mL) cider vinegar

Combine flour and salt in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle. Turn to low-medium speed and add butter. Mix until well dispersed but still slightly clumpy. Add vinegar and ¼ cup (50 mL) water and continue. Add up to but not more than another ¼ cup (50 mL) of water to help the dough to ball up. Wrap dough in cellophane and rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours before rolling.