An early autumn salad with girolles and cobnuts

Serves 4

This is a light and simple salad using all the ingredients that are good in the first few weeks of September.

2 sticks of celery, washed and dried and cut into fine slices
1 fennel bulb, fibrous outer leaves removed, and cut into fine rounds
A handful of mache lettuce
A handful of bull's blood or ruby chard (if neither are available, radicchio is also good)
20 girolles, wiped gently clean with a dry cloth (don't wash them)
The juice and zest of a lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
40ml/2fl oz extra-virgin olive oil
100g/3oz Parmesan, sliced finely
12 cobnuts, shelled and roughly chopped
80ml/3fl oz crème fraîche
1tbsp chopped curly parsley

Place the celery, fennel, mache, and bull's blood in a mixing bowl. Add the girolles, lemon juice and zest, and season well with the salt and pepper. Pour over the olive oil and toss together lightly with your hands. Add the Parmesan and cobnuts and toss again.

Divide half the salad among four plates. Spoon over a tablespoon or so of crème fraîche and top with the rest of the salad. Finish with the chopped parsley and serve at once.