Melon, Prosciutto and Arugula Salad

This Melon, Prosciutto and Arugula salad is the perfect summertime side! Full of juicy cantaloupe, salty prosciutto, soft mozzarella, peppery arugula, and a zippy lemon vinaigrette – there is nothing else you’ll want to eat for the rest of these hot summer days.

Just as I trade in my coats, sweaters and boots for light-as-air dresses, tank tops and flip flops when cold weather turns warm, I do the same for my salads by replacing dried figs, cranberries and Brussels sprouts for peak-of-summer produce and citrusy vinaigrettes.

While strawberries, blueberries and peaches often get a majority of the glory when it comes to summer produce, summer melon shouldn’t be neglected. Because when it’s good, it’s GOOD. So many times, I’ve made a beeline past the dozens of cantaloupe piled up in a bin to head straight for the bright red strawberries, but thanks so my son’s new infatuation with melon, it’s now one of the first things I pick up. I had completely forgotten how delicious a perfectly ripe cantaloupe can be, something I should know better since I ate my weight in melon and prosciutto when I studied abroad in Italy.

Aside from learning how to make the best sauce and how to perfect homemade pasta, the discovery of a perfectly sweet piece of melon paired with a salty bite of prosciutto was one of my biggest food takeaways from my time there. I spent several years obsessing over the combination and then kind of just forgot about it as time went on.

Hopefully you forgot it as well, because then, just like me, this perfect pairing will be new to you again.

I don’t feel like I needs to go in to explicit detail about this salad, since the name is kind of self explanatory, but let me tell you this – it’s the only salad you’ll need until hot summer days, turn into cool fall temperatures…