Cantaloupe recipes showcase cool summer flavors

I waited far too long to enjoy a cantaloupe this summer. They have been at the farmers market for weeks, and I didn’t collect one until last Saturday. Cutting through an outer skin that looks like netting, inside a cantaloupe reveals a slender strip of green where the flesh meets the skin, and a tangle of seeds and string in the center of the juicy orange flesh. Once you scoop out the seeds, you’re ready to cut the melon into slices or chunks.

The technique I use when cutting melon into pieces (rather than slicing or making melon balls) begins with cutting the melon in half and removing the seeds. Then cut each half into slices about one-inch thick. Make uniformly spaced cuts completely into the flesh along the length of the slice, across the width and perpendicular to the length of the rind. Insert the knife blade at one end of the slice, just at the base of the orange flesh. Cut along the length of the melon slice, dropping the chunks into a bowl.

Like so many of our favorite foods, cantaloupe has been growing in the Nile River valley for millennia, a fruit known to the ancient Egyptians and Romans. Commercial production was established early in Southern Asia and Africa, and the fruit found its way into Europe in the 15th century. American farmers began producing cantaloupe in the late 1800s after the Burpee Company introduced the Netted Gem variety.

Although they’re technically different fruits, cantaloupes are often called muskmelons for their sweet fragrance when perfectly ripe. The name “melon” comes to us from the Medieval Latin word “melonem,” which referred to a type of pumpkin. By the 13th century, we had the Old French word “meloun.” The specific type of melon we call cantaloupe refers to the Italian town of Cantalupo, near Rome, where the fruit was grown for the nearby papal estate.

If you are looking for ways to serve cantaloupe, the internet is full of recipes for smoothies, sorbets and salads. One of these photos caught my eye because of its simplicity: two types of melon, honeydew and cantaloupe, cut into chunks and tossed together in a glass bowl. As I read the recipe that accompanied the photo, I realized the photo didn’t match the text at all.

The first confusion was the quantity of ingredients: one cantaloupe, one mango, four strawberries and four cans of lychees to make four servings. The instructions in the recipe were even more perplexing, directing you to use a melon baller to “cut as many balls as possible from the strawberries.” I simply couldn’t imagine how to accomplish that.

Finally, since lychees (a delicious tropical fruit when eaten fresh) are usually sold canned in heavy syrup, why would you cloud the flavor of the dish by pouring the syrup over the melon and mango slices? I realize that people who write recipe blogs try to earn money by posting ads on their pages, but sometimes there’s a bit of a disconnect. On this site, the ad next to the recipe read, “Do this to clean your toilet.”

As you may imagine, that wasn’t a dish I would chose to serve, going instead with the combination seen in Jack’s photo. Because the melons were so juicy, I opted to forgo using a complex dressing, adding just a spritz of lime juice. If you’d like to try a more involved salad, there’s a recipe for melon and prosciutto with arugula and a Balsamic vinaigrette. The final recipe replaces tomato with cantaloupe in chilled gazpacho. And, to hold onto the flavor of summer, be sure to freeze some of your cantaloupe chunks (cut quite small) to toss into a breakfast smoothie.

Simple Melon Salad

1/2 honeydew melon
1/2 cantaloupe
juice of 1 lime
mint leaves for garnish

Trim the flesh from the rind of the melons and cut into one-inch chunks. Place the melon pieces into a bowl, drizzle with fresh lime juice and toss to combine. Garnish with mint leaves to serve. Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Balsamic & Prosciutto Melon Salad

4 C baby arugula
3 T Balsamic vinegar
1/2 t Dijon mustard
1/4 C olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
2 C melon balls
4 slices prosciutto

Rinse and dry the arugula; place in a mixing bowl. Whisk together vinegar, mustard and olive oil until emulsified. Pour dressing over greens and toss to coat the leaves. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Arrange the lettuce on four salad plates. Divide the melon balls among the plates and top each plate with one slice of prosciutto torn into shreds.

Cantaloupe Gazpacho

1 cantaloupe
1 cucumber
1 shallot
1/4 C basil leaves
3 T olive oil
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 T lemon juice
1/4 t white pepper
salt, to taste

Cut the cantaloupe in half; scrape out and discard the seeds. Cut the melon into thick slices; cut off and discard the rind. Coarsely chop the flesh and add to the bowl of a blender. Peel and seed the cucumber; roughly chop and add to the blender. Chop the shallot and add to the blender along with the basil leaves. Puree the mixture until smooth. Add olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice; process to combine. Place in the refrigerator in a sealed container overnight. To serve, garnish with white pepper and salt, to taste. Yield: 6 servings.