Fruit starter of gooseberry and pear salad (5)
I believe the answer is:
grape
'fruit' is the definition.
(grape is a kind of fruit)
'starter of gooseberry and pear salad' is the wordplay.
'starter of' suggests taking the first letters.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'salad' is an anagram indicator (a mixture or salad of the letters).
The first letter of 'gooseberry' is 'g'.
'pear' is an anagram of 'rape'.
'g'+'rape'='GRAPE'
(Other definitions for grape that I've seen before include "Fruit from bunch" , "It grows on the vine" , "Vine fruit" , "In Elgin rummage about in the dark" , "Green/black fruit" .)