Lemons with everything: Letitia Clark’s recipes for creamy baked fennel and spring fregola salad

A hearty and creamy fennel, lemon and pecorino bake, and a herby pea and courgette pasta salad that works as a side or main

To the northern eye, attuned as it is to the muted and russet tones of our indigenous apples and pears, the lemon is a thing of almost mocking brightness and jollity – so bold, blatant and exclamatory in its yellowness. Lemons are variously described as electric, fresh, optimistic, uplifting, zesty, spritzy, cheerful, sunny, lively. They are synonymous with freshness and optimism, and a happy lemon is full, pert and perky, and unapologetically, proudly yellow. Long live the lemon!