the perfect summer salad with melon and prosciutto
it's hard to go wrong with these ingredients
Welcome to thyme & butter! Thank you for being here. If you’ve found your way over by some miracle but are not yet subscribed, let me help you with that:
Thanks for joining the club! 🌿💛
This week I’m keeping it simple with a delicious summer salad that is the perfect blend of sweet, salty, herbaceous, and fresh! The inspiration for this dish were some of the more complicated salads I kept seeing on Pinterest, ones requiring grilling, marinating, brûléeing, or driving out of town to find specialty ingredients. I wanted something quick, with minimal chopping and fussing, that still delivered on flavor and dare I say elegance!
That being said, this recipe does have mention of a melon baller, which is probably one of the fussiest kitchen instruments I can think of. If melon balling sounds like a chore, you have my permission and encouragement to simply cut the cantaloupe however you please!
Ingredients:
1 (standard grocery size) bag of arugula
1 (standard grocery size) bag of spinach
1 heaping handful of fresh basil
1 cantaloupe
5oz prosciutto
juice of ½ lemon
a drizzle of olive oil
balsamic glaze
salt and pepper
Instructions:
In a large serving bowl, combine your arugula and spinach. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and juice from ½ a lemon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to mix.
Cut your cantaloupe in half and scoop out the seeds. Line another bowl with a paper towel and use a melon baller to make spheres, place each sphere on your paper towel and set aside until ready to use.
With a sharp knife, cut your prosciutto into long strips, about 3 per slice. Roll them into bite-sized rosettes, or crinkle them into a shape easy to grab with a fork.
Chop your basil into thin shreds. You can do this by stacking the leaves and rolling them into a bundle to slice them all at once (I recently learned this is called the “chiffonade method” - how fancy!)
To assemble the salad, sprinkle your basil over the bowl of greens, and gently place pieces of melon and prosciutto throughout. Drizzle with balsamic glaze and serve. Add more salt, pepper, and balsamic glaze to taste.
Serves about 6 as a side, or 4 if you’re hungry!
And that’s all it takes! I hope you enjoy this salad and perhaps make it for a friend!
Much love,
jess✨
Supplemental reading: My lovely friend Caelan wrote this article for Hawaii News Now on what exactly is needed to help Maui wildfire victims. For an extensive list of organizations to donate to, see this article.
Bon Appétit!
As always, you can reply to this email to let me know what you think, or keep me posted on what you’ve been cooking lately! You can also leave a comment on Substack or forward to a friend!
Find me on Instagram and Pinterest 💕
All past recipes will be available in the archive, so you never have to worry about missing one!