Warm salad of smoked mackerel and celeriac

This is a fairly quick light supper. Serves 2

1 small head of celeriac, cut into half inch cubes
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
pinch of thyme
two smoked mackerel fillets, skin removed and cut into chunks
olive oil
50 ml water
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp Dijon mustard
salad leaves - whatever mixture you like

Heat a couple of lugs of olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pan. Add the onion and celeriac, and stir well to get coated in the oil. Cover and cook for a few minutes, giving the pan an occasional shake. Add the chilli, garlic and thyme and cook for another couple of minutes.
Add the water and mustard, cover and cook on a slow heat for about ten minutes, until the celeriac is getting tender. Uncover, to reduce the liquid. When it's thickened nicely, stir in the mackerel chunks just to warm through. Season to taste.
Serve tossed through the salad leaves.

Penne with smoked mackerel and chargrilled peppers

A summer warmer, if that's possible. Serves two, suitably equipped with a bottle of rosé.

2 smoked mackerel fillets (the unpeppered ones work best), skinned and chopped into big chunks
1 brown onion, sliced
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tsp capers, chopped
handful of fresh basil leaves, torn up
1 garlic clove, bruised
Olive oil
1 tsp light muscovado sugar

160g penne pasta

For the chargrilled peppers
2 bell peppers, opened out, flattened and torn into strips
1 tbs groundnut oil
Maldon sea salt
pinch of cut, dried lemon grass
juice of half a lemon
olive oil
sprig of rosemary

First, put a cast iron griddle on a high heat. Rub the strips of bell pepper with groundnut oil, salt and cut lemon grass. When the pan's really hot, lay the strips inside-face down and grill for a couple of minutes, until nice charred stripes have appeared. Turn the peppers over and grill the outer skin side for just a minute. When they're done, chop roughly into inch squares, and transfer to a bowl with some olive oil, lemon juice and the rosemary. Mix well and leave to one side.

Heat a big lug of olive oil in a pan with the bruised garlic clove. When the garlic's turned golden, discard it. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until just starting to colour (you can add a splash of white wine vinegar at this stage, and cook for another half minute, depending on the acidity of your lemons and any salad dressing you might be using). Add the tomatos and muscovado sugar, and cook covered for a few minutes. Uncover, add the capers, and reduce for a few more minutes. When it's thickened nicely, turn the heat down a bit, and add the peppers (with as much of the oil and lemon as you like - but discard the rosemary sprig), mackerel and basil. Mix together well and cover for about half a minute.

At the same time, get a big pan of salted water to the boil and cook the penne according to the pack instructions. Drain, add a splash of olive oil and salt, toss, then put on the plate with whatever salad you like. Any liquid left, add to the sauce.

Spoon the mackerel and pepper mixture on top of the drained pasta. Garnish with some spring onion chopped diagonally if you like.