Prosciutto-Wrapped Melon

The melon must be perfectly ripe - fragrant at the stem end with slight give. Use authentic prosciutto di Parma or San Daniele for best flavor. Paper-thin slicing is essential. Good aged balsamic is thick and syrupy, not thin and sharp. Serve at cool room temperature, not cold, for best flavor.

Prosciutto e melone is one of Italy's most celebrated antipasto combinations, pairing two of the country's finest summer products in the simplest possible preparation. Prosciutto crudo, the salt-cured and air-dried ham of Parma and San Daniele, has been produced in northern Italy since at least Roman times; the ancient Roman author Polybius noted the fine hams of Cisalpine Gaul in the 2nd century BCE. The pairing of cured ham with sweet melon appears in Italian culinary sources from the Renaissance period, when both cantaloupe and muskmelons were grown widely in central and northern Italy. Pope Paul II (1417–1471) was reportedly so fond of melons that his physicians warned him against overindulgence. Bartolomeo Scappi, chef to Pope Pius V and the most important Italian culinary writer of the 16th century, documented the pairing of cold melon with prosciutto in his landmark cookbook Opera dell'Arte del Cucinare (1570), one of the most important documents of Renaissance Italian cuisine. The physiological logic of the pairing, according to medieval and Renaissance dietary theory, was that the sweetness of the melon was "corrected" by the salt and protein of the ham, which was believed to aid digestion. Today the combination is understood simply as a masterclass in Italian flavors: the salt of the prosciutto intensifies the melon's sweetness, and each enhances the other without additional preparation.