Eight ingredients, plus pantry staples. That's all it takes to make an entire meal from scratch. Add in a good bottle of wine for less than $20, and you've got a feast for family or friends.
Once the lazy days of August arrive, aperitivo hour and dinner tend to blend together. This wine-friendly recipe takes the salty-sweet combination of cured ham and melon and transforms it into a summer salad, where really the hardest part is determining whether or not the cantaloupe is ripe.
We’ve all been there, standing in the produce aisle, staring at a pile of firm melons and wondering if any of them are actually ripe. The trick? Lift the cantaloupes, and smell them from the blossom end (smaller, darker and slightly raised compared to the larger circle of the stem end), looking for a fragrant, musky and sweet scent. The other larger circle is the stem end, where the cantaloupe grows out of isn’t as fragrant as others would assume. If none of the cantaloupes seem ready, then bring one home to ripen at room temperature for two days.
This dish falls into one of my favorite weeknight dinner categories: “knife-and-fork salads.” It’s not a snack or a side, more of a whole meal. As in the iconic aperitivo-hour dish, prosciutto is wrapped around succulent cantaloupe slices, but then those pieces are nestled into a large bed of dressed bitter greens and topped with veggies and cheese.
This dish is fairly adaptable: Different greens can be used as the base, but those with a touch of bitterness and spiciness—arugula, frisée, escarole, chicory and radicchio—are a great complement to the balsamic vinaigrette. (I used chicory, which is readily available and has a bit of a bite.) The smaller, crunchy, bitter greens provide more texture, serving as a counterpoint to balance the softness of the juicy melon and prosciutto. Honeydew or casaba can stand for the cantaloupe, and if prosciutto isn’t on hand, switch it out with other European cured meats like Serrano ham, capicola/coppa, pancetta, thinly sliced salami or speck. (Even country ham would work well in a pinch.)
Used in the dressing, balsamic glaze is one of those pantry items that I try to stay away from, because I know as soon as I put it on one thing, I’m going to use it obsessively for the next two weeks (balsamic glaze on vanilla ice cream, trust me!) until I run out or finally tire of it. The concentration of fig and molasses notes plays so well with peppery, grassy olive oil, it’s an essentially perfect salad dressing. And the beauty of a dish like this is in exactly that balance of fruity and vegetal, sweet and salty, juicy and crisp.
Scattered on top as a garnish, fresh shucked corn gives this dish a pop of color, along with an extra element of sweetness and texture. (If you’re already grilling, feel free to pop the cobs, with husks and silks intact, on the grill for a few minutes.) For a guide on how to scrape corn from the cob, look no further than chef Sarah Grueneberg’s tips in this recipe from our July 31, 2023, issue. What gets this salad across the finish line are large, elegant shavings of parmesan cheese (achieved using the large horizontal slots on a standard cheese grater), contributing a touch of richness that brings it all together.
It would almost be cruel not to pair this plate with an Italian wine, something that balances its fruit flavors with enough acidity to play well with the melon, vinegar, cheese and cured meat all at once. This led me to the Antinori Toscana White Villa Antinori 2022 (88, $15), an interesting and shockingly affordable blend from the famed Tuscan house, made from a mix of Trebbiano, Malvasia, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Riesling. If you want to keep the entire meal within Emilia-Romagna, using Modena balsamic vinegar and prosciutto di Parma, a lighter and fruitier style of Lambrusco rosso, bianco or rossato would be a welcome spritzy accompaniment.
This salad can stand on its own for a light summer meal, maybe with a side of bruschetta or warm crostini, or even more charcuterie and cheese. This can also make an impressive side for a barbecue: To prepare it ahead of time, place the prosciutto-wrapped melon crescents in a container in the fridge until it’s time to assemble the rest of the dish, up to two hours in advance.
Melon, Prosciutto and Corn Salad
Pair with a bright, fruity white blend of Italian grapes, such as Antinori Toscana White Villa Antinori 2022 (88, $15).
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 0 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Approximate food costs: $23
Ingredients
- 1 5-ounce package of pre-sliced prosciutto
- 1 small cantaloupe, rind removed, sliced into thin crescents, and then cut in half crosswise
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons balsamic glaze
- Salt and cracked black pepper to taste
- 1 pound of cleaned and torn greens such as chicory, escarole or arugula
- Two raw ears of corn, shucked and scraped off the cob
- 1/3 cup shaved parmesan cheese
Preparation
1. Tear the slices of prosciutto in half crosswise and wrap around the individual crescents of cantaloupe. Set on a plate and repeat until all the prosciutto is used. Set aside in the fridge.
2. Whisk together olive oil, balsamic glaze, salt and pepper. Toss the greens with three quarters of the vinaigrette in a large bowl, and then transfer to a large plate. Take the wrapped cantaloupe and nestle the slices into the bed of greens.
3. Scatter the scraped corn across the salad. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the melon crescents and corn. Top salad with large flakes of shaved parmesan cheese and a few cracks of pepper from a grinder. Serve immediately. Serves 4.
