Sometimes, there’s no need to be creative — I just want good! The Italian pairing of prosciutto with cantaloupe melon is so good, it’s earned it’s place as a timeless summer favorite. Here we’re making prosciutto melon skewers, an easy appetizer, or quick and light summer meal.
Prosciutto and cantaloupe is the perfect combination of savory and sweet, from the salt cured ham to the fresh sweetness of the cold melon. And you’ll love how it takes just 2 ingredients and a few minutes to throw together.
Prosciutto Melon Skewers
Not really a recipe, prosciutto and melon is an assemble of just two ingredients that together make one of the most popular and classic summer appetizers in Italian cuisine and the European Mediterranean. This tasty appetizer requires nothing but the essentials. Neither sauces nor decorative trimmings are needed. And for the skewers, all you need is simple toothpicks.
My top advice for deliciousness is to get top quality ingredients for your melon prosciutto skewers: fresh ripe cantaloupe, not too sweet here, and great tasting prosciutto crudo (salt-cured ham), thinly sliced. Prosciutto San Daniele or Prosciutto di Parma from Italy, and Jamon Serrano from Spain are great options to look for. More about prosciutto, including some of the very best, follows below.
Melon
In Italy, the melon for Prosciutto e Melone usually means cantaloupe, a fruit with a long history in Italy. With its sweet, juicy texture and stunning orange color, it is ideal for pairing with salt cured prosciutto.
Note, this is a rare case where an overly ripe cantaloupe could be a bit too sweet. I find that a medium sweet cantaloupe goes very well here.
I like to cut the cantaloupe into squares as opposed to using a melon baller, because melon squares stand up on their own, and are easier to wrap the prosciutto around.
This brings us to an important and often overlooked flavor distinction: Cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto creates a superior flavor experience, versus separating prosciutto and cantaloupe into separate bites. Wrapping the cantaloupe with prosciutto helps ensure that every bite has that perfect harmony of flavors.
Cantaloupe Wisdom:
How to pick a cantaloupe, How to cut a cantaloupe…
Prosciutto: A Long Tradition
Prosciutto has a long history in Italy that can be traced to the Etruscans. Along with other goods, such as wine, grains and copper, Etruscans were already breeding pigs and curing prosciutto with salt to trade with Greece as early as 2500 years ago.
Unchanged for centuries, the slow natural process of curing prosciutto begins with a coat of salt followed by a long process of natural air curing. In Italy, it takes between 12 and 24 months or more before it gets the seal of approval and ultimately to our plate.
Prosciutto: FAQs
Prosciutto means ham in Italian, from pro + asciutto (asciutto means dry or dried). Parma ham is prosciutto that comes from the Italian city of Parma.
No, prosciutto is cured with salt and air over a period of a year or more. Curing makes it safe to eat without cooking, and very delicious.
Prosciutto crudo is salt-cured ham, whereas prosciutto cotto is cooked ham.
Prosciutto sliced over the counter is best consumed a couple of days after purchase. Beyond that, it starts to dry out, become leathery and lose flavor. Store sliced prosciutto in the fridge.
Shopping for Prosciutto
Prosciutto crudo, a salt-cured ham, is what you’ll need for your prosciutto and melon skewers. It is available pre-sliced, but has a fresher texture and taste when you get it freshly sliced at the deli counter. Usually, you’ll get a test slice to see if it is the right thickness. You want it thin enough to eat easily, yet not so thin that it falls apart when trying to pry it away from the deli paper.
Recommended Salt-Cured Hams
Italian
- Prosciutto di Parma: Has a sweet and nutty flavor that comes from aging, a diet of cereals and whey. The whey is a by-product that comes from another local delicacy of Parma: Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
- Prosciutto di San Daniele: San Daniele del Friuli is a speck on the map, but its location, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps, has created the perfect micro climate for the curing of prosciutto — giving San Daniele prosciutto a distinct character with delicate and sweet flavor and has been doing so for centuries.
- Culatello di Zibello: Italy’s crown jewel, made from the best, leanest part of the leg. Culatello’s finest comes from an almost extinct, rare breed of black pigs (Nero di Parma) — the Italian version of the Spanish Pata Negra.
The curing process involves salt, several days of massages, and more salt with pepper, garlic, and dry white wine. Then it’s hung to dry in a cellar, usually close to the river Po, as it provides essential ingredients such as humidity, and highs and lows in temperature, to help develop the unique flavor of Culatello ham. Pungent, musky, silky and delicious. To be enjoyed with good artisanal bread.
Spanish
- Jamon Serrano is very similar to Italian prosciutto, and an excellent alternative. The hams are made from similar breeds of pigs, and have a similar curing process.
- Jamon Iberico, by many considered the best, most certainly the most expensive prosciutto in the market. It is made only from black Iberian pigs, also called pata negra (black hoofs), and raised in a semi-wild environment with plenty of land to roam and feed on whatever nature provides. Grass, herbs and, most of all, acorns. I like to savor it alone with just bread sticks or a loaf of country bread … and perhaps a glass of wine.
More for Cantaloupe lovers:
Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 thin slices of prosciutto (such as San Daniele or Parma prosciutto crudo, or other salt cured ham such as Serrano)
- ½ cantaloupe, washed, dried and chilled
Instructions
- Cut the cantaloupe into bite-size cubes.
- Wrap the prosciutto around each piece of cantaloupe, and spear with a toothpick.
- Arrange on a serving dish or individual plates. Serve promptly or refrigerate up to one hour.
