I have so much love for summer fruit that I think I probably eat my weight in it every year. I believe that produce, such as fruit and veggies are best used when they are at their peak of freshness. Although we are lucky enough to find melons in the grocery shops all year-long, the melon flavours and textures are so distinctly different in the winter, than in the summer.
In my cooking, I love combining fruit in all of my dishes, whether it's for dessert, a smoothie, side salad or main dish. This Prosciutto Melon side salad requires only a handful of ingredients and is packed with flavour. The most time consuming part of the salad is balling the melons, but it's so worth it when you see the uniform fruit and bocconcini shapes arranged on the platter.
One of the keys to really taking this salad up a notch is to use a quality finishing olive oil. I like to finish salads and light dishes with Merula Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Spain. It's a fruity oil with a medium intensity. It has aromas of fruit, olives and a bit of grassy notes. It's definitely not an every day cooking olive oil. I reserve it to add an extra bit offlavour when I'm only making recipes with only a few ingredients.
Make sure you are at the front of the line if you're serving this to a crowd, as it will be gone in a flash. I've never had leftovers.
Enjoy!
Krista
Prosciutto Melon Salad
Ingredients
1 honey dew melon
1 cantaloupe
10 small bocconcini, cut in half
8 prosciutto slices, wrapped to look like rose buds
20 fresh basil leaves, torn (mine were small, adjust as needed)
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons Merula extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic glaze (the syrup, not the vinegar - I used Nonna Pia's Balsamic Glaze)
Method
Quarter the honey dew and cantaloupe. Using a melon baller, scoop small and medium sized melon balls and arrange on a platter (I used all of the scraps in a fruit salad and smoothies). Add bocconcini, prosciutto roses and torn basil leaves. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the top. Drizzle with olive oil and refrigerate until half an hour before serving. This will allow the flavours to marinate. Bring to room temperature before serving and finish with a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
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