26 September 2021

Melon e Prosciutto

Name: Melon e Prosciutto
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1 Cantaloupe; 1 package Prosciutto (good quality, Italian prosciutto)

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Bring Italy into your home with this Melon e Prosciutto (melon and prosciutto) recipe! A super quick and simple appetizer using only 2 ingredients: fresh cantaloupe and delicious Italian prosciutto. Juicy melon slices get wrapped with prosciutto and make the perfect summer snack or even lunch or dinner. This classic Italian dish is a must during summer!

When traveling one of the most interesting things for me is not laying at the beach or going shopping, no it is discovering the local food. In my opinion there is no better way in getting to know a foreign place and their culture than by trying their food.

Melon e prosciutto reminds me of the many visits in Italy during my childhood. Especially the weeks we spent on Elba for a tennis camp. We kids ate melon e prosciutto literally every night at dinner for the starter!

This is not really a recipe but a way to enjoy melon. However, it is a dish so good it has to be shared just like the tomato and mozzarella salad. Using only 2 ingredients this yummy treat is made in less than 10 minutes.

Ingredients for melon e prosciutto:

Melon e prosciutto is a classic Italian dish where you wrap thinly sliced Italian prosciutto around fresh and juicy melon slices. This mouthwatering combination of sweet and salty flavors will soon be a family favorite in your home!

Cantaloupe: Make sure you get a good ripe cantaloupe. See tips below.
Prosciutto: Prosciutto is Italian dry-cured ham. It gets cut into thin slices and tastes rather salty. You will want to get a good quality melt-in-mouth Italian prosciutto for this recipe. As you only eat prosciutto and melon you will want the best flavor you can get! Make sure you get the Italian version and not the Spanish. They are both amazing but have different flavors.

How to choose a good cantaloupe at the store:

Over the past years we had maaaany bad melons at home. Not a surprise you want when wanting to bite into a big slice of it I tell you that! So, I started to research and find tips and tricks on how to choose a good cantaloupe. This is what you should look for:

The first trick I learnt from my mom is to smell the melon at the stem. A good and ripe melon should smell sweet. If it does not smell like anything the fruit is not ready. However, if it smells weird and unpleasant
Avoid melons with brown spots or dents that are soft

How to make this Melon e Prosciutto recipe:

This recipe requires no cooking and is super quick and easy to make. It can be served as summer snack, starter, as a salad or even as the main dish. So, lets make this prosciutto wrapped melon recipe shall we?

Cut the cantaloupe in half. Remove the seeds using a big spoon.

Then cut each half into wedges. You can follow the green lines on the fruit to cut along.

Cut the fruit off the rind using a knive and going along the rind with it. Wrap the thinly sliced prosciutto around the melon slices. If you want you can add some extra toppings to the dish now. Serve them on a platter or some plates.

Pro tip: Instead of cutting wedges cut the melon into cubes. Wrap the cubes in some prosciutto and put everything on a cocktail skewer to make a simple convenient snack for parties.

Toppings / Garnish for melon e prosciutto

Herbs: Add some basil or mint leaves for some extra flavor if you want.
Balsamic: Drizzle balsamic vinegar or even better balsamic glaze over the melon
Honey: Drizzle some delicious quality honey over the dish. You should try flavored honey

Can you make this dish ahead?

You can absolutely make this dish ahead. However, I do not recommend it. If you want to make this dish ahead i recommend cutting the melon and keeping it in a air-tight container. Wait with wrapping the prosciutto around the melon. With the salty prosciutto wrapped around the melon slices they would dry out way to quickly.

Keep them in the fridge for only a few hours if you already wrap the meat around the melon.

Make sure you serve the dish at room temperature as the fruit will taste much better than when completely cold.

Other variations:

Next to cantaloupe prosciutto gets paired with lots of other yummy sweet produce. The combination of sweet and salty is just amazing and is being done since ages in Italy. Apples and figs are an example that you should try! both pair amazingly with the salty cured-ham especially with some honey!