There is no fish I can think of that doesn’t work with spinach. But where creamed spinach seems perfectly fine with a steak of halibut or haddock, the richer, oily fish such as salmon are more appropriately matched to the leaves in a simpler state.

A mouthful of lemon salad, at once breathtakingly sharp, is more than at home on the same fork as a piece of salmon or a bunch of meltingly soft spinach. Bering all three together and you have a dish of extraordinary vitality.

Enough for 2

salmon – a 225–250g piece of fish per person

olive oil

spinach – 500g

 

For the salad:

lemons – 2

caster sugar – 2 teaspoons

olive oil – 2 tablespoons

flat-leaf parsley – a small bunch

capers – a heaped tablespoon

 

Brush the salmon on both sides with olive oil, then season with salt. Get a non-stick frying pan hot, then place the fish skin-side down in the pan. Leave, at a moderate heat, for four or five minutes until the skin has crisped. Turn, cover with a lid and leave for a further five minutes or so, until the fish is lightly cooked through to the centre.

Meanwhile, make the salad by cutting away the skin and white pith from the lemons with a sharp knife and slicing the lemons thinly. Put them into a mixing bowl with the sugar, olive oil and a good handful of parsley leaves, left whole. Add the capers and toss the salad gently. Leave for a few minutes, during which time the sharpness of the lemon will mellow a little.

Wash the spinach thoroughly, then steam in a lidded pan for a minute or two till tender. Drain.

Put the lemon salad and the spinach on warm plates and slide on the salmon.