Fruit Salads

Melon & Prosciutto Salad

Sweet and salty is the oldest trick in Italian cooking and nothing demonstrates it better than ripe melon against cured ham. The rule is to serve both at cool room temperature rather than fridge-cold, because chilling flattens the melon's perfume and stiffens the prosciutto's fat so it never melts on the tongue. Torn mozzarella adds a creamy middle note, mint keeps it lifted, and a hard grind of black pepper stops it reading as dessert. It takes fifteen minutes and looks like far more effort than it is.

Melon & Prosciutto Salad
15 minPrep time
15 minTotal time
4Servings
290Kcal / serving

Ingredients

  • 1 ripe cantaloupe or Charentais melon
  • 120g prosciutto di Parma, thinly sliced
  • 200g buffalo mozzarella, torn
  • 50g rocket
  • Large handful mint leaves
  • 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp aged balsamic vinegar
  • Flaky sea salt and coarse black pepper

Instructions

  1. Temper everything

    Take the melon, prosciutto and mozzarella out of the fridge 20 minutes before you build the salad. Cool room temperature is the target, not cold.

  2. Cut the melon

    Halve and deseed the melon, cut into wedges, and slice the skin away. Cut each wedge into rough 3cm pieces.

  3. Build

    Scatter the rocket over a wide platter. Arrange the melon over it, then drape the prosciutto in loose folds rather than laying it flat — you want air and shape.

  4. Finish

    Tear the mozzarella over the top. Drizzle with olive oil and just a few drops of balsamic, then finish with mint, flaky salt and a lot of black pepper.

It sits well beside our Watermelon Feta Salad or Peach Burrata Salad. For the sweet-salty principle in detail, read How to Build a Salad.

The EasySaladBowl secretTest the melon at the stem end — it should smell sweet and floral and give slightly under your thumb. If it smells of nothing, no amount of prosciutto will save the dish.

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