Holiday Feast: Melon and Burrata Salad with Crispy Proscuitto and Basil
Christmas Day here in Australia is filled with morning beach swims and a lunchtime feast of seafood, roast meats, a variety of hot and cold salads, mangoes and of course, pavlova. And so brings us to the next recipe in our Holiday Feast series - our Melon & Burrata Salad. Made even better with crispy prosciutto and fresh basil. Before we get stuck in, if you're looking for more super delicious and super simple to make sides for Christmas Day, make sure you check out our Maple & Macadamia Hasselback Pumpkin and our Rosemary Garlic Butter Baked Artichokes.
We love seasonal fruit, and summer brings out the best - watermelon, rockmelon, cherries, mango, peaches, nectarines and plums (to name just a few). With the weather heating up in Australia come December, the last thing we know you wanted on Christmas Day was a table piled high with hot and warm food. It's just too hot here for that! What we wanted was to create a fresh and vibrant fruit salad. Nothing beats the combination of fresh melon and prosciutto, but we wanted to flip what is typically a canapé or h'odeurve and create a fresh, vibrant salad packed with the flavours we love - sweet, salt and savoury. Introducing our Melon & Burrata Salad with crispy prosciutto, Australian Bush Dukkah and basil leaves. It has all those flavours and when paired together, creates an explosion of deliciousness in your mouth and more. If you've been reading and making our recipes, you'll know how much we love Australian Bush Dukkah. It takes many dishes from good to great in seconds. So go on, try something new!
What we love most about this salad is that there is little prep time. It's about cutting up your melon into big chunks (cantaloupe is best), frying your prosciutto with a bit of olive oil, tearing your burrata open, and seasoning with Bush Dukkah and a simple balsamic dressing. You can prep everything ahead of time, and throw it all into a large dish a few minutes before serving. This salad was everyone's favourite at our annual Christmas Feast with friends a few weeks ago, so we're really excited to share our recipe with you.
Ingredients
1 whole rock melon, diced into big chunks (approximately 2cm to 3cm cubes)
2 whole burrata (we get ours from Coles)
200g prosciutto
Handful of fresh basil leaves, sliced finely
A few sprigs of fresh basil leaves, for presentation
For the dressing
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 a lemon, juiced
2 tbsp Bush Dukkah (you can make this dressing without this, but we think it's way better with!)
Method
To make the dressing, combine all of the ingredients and stir vigourously with a fork or whisk. Cover with cling wrap and set aside.
Bring pan to medium heat. Lightly grease the pain with a splash of olive oil, and fry the individual pieces of prosciutto. Set aside on a clean tea towel or kitchen paper to drain any excess oil. You will need to do this in batches.
Once the prosciutto is ready, put your diced melon (cantaloupe) into the serving dish, and place two burrata balls at either end. Carefully tear them open with your hands and let the cheese ooze out onto the melon. The more rustic, the better!
Scrunch up each slice of crispy prosciutto into your hand and place in between the melon and burrata, and on top of the burrata too.
Sprinkle finely sliced basil leaves all over.
Give your dressing a quick stir then pour all over the melon, burrata and basil leaves.
Garnish with sprigs of basil leaves.
Serve immediately.
