You’re only using the young, tender and sweet heart of the celery for this salad, but keep all the tougher outer celery stalks to make stock or soup. This salad goes brilliantly with rare-grilled lamb backstraps.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

50ml lemon juice

1 teaspoon honey

Pinch of salt

100ml extra-virgin olive oil

1 bunch celery

2 fennel bulbs

135g hard pecorino, shaved

Freshly ground black pepper, to season

Method

Combine the mustard, lemon juice, honey and salt in a small bowl. Slowly pour in the olive oil, whisking the ingredients together. Set aside while you prepare the fennel and celery.

Remove the large outer stalks of celery and store in the fridge for another use. Remove the top woody part of the fennel and discard any damaged outer layers. Cut the celery heart and fennel bulbs into thin slices, about
1⁄2 cm thick (a mandoline is useful for this). Keep some of the tender celery leaves to garnish the salad.

Place celery and fennel in a large bowl and drizzle with the dressing. Gently fold through the dressing. Arrange on a serving platter. Top with shaved pecorino and plenty of black pepper.