Last Friday, I talked about my penchant for a transitional salad, where the assemblage of bits and bobs on your plate are as fresh as they are pleasingly warming and hearty. 

In the past week, I have got slightly burnt eating fish and chips and nursing a beer outside a beach hut after swimming in the sea at Lyme Regis; I’ve also pulled a woolly hat as far as it will go over my ears on some, frankly, Baltic morning walks to the bus stop. It seems those few glorious days were just some sort of classic British fake spring. But when the sun does occasionally peek back through the grey, there’s some real warmth in it. A transitional salad, then, could be the answer to all your April dinner problems.

This isn’t just any old transitional salad though, this is a transitional salad with homemade crisps in it. And sausage. And cheese. On second thoughts, “salad” is a pretty loose term when it comes to this dish. You’re welcome.

You’ll fry little chorizo sausages, and then use the rusty oil they leak to crisp up very thin slices of potato. It can be helpful to use a mandoline for this dish if you have one, as the fennel could also do with being sliced thinly. A sharp knife will do just fine if you don’t have one.

Then make a punchy vinaigrette for the fennel, which really cuts through the salty, fatty sausage and potatoes. And leave the parsley whole so it acts a bit like a salad leaf. Some capers would be a good addition, as would some finely sliced shallot. I like eating this with warm bread or thick slices of toast, as you need something to mop up the sharp vinaigrette and chorizo oil.