Curious about cantalope?

Cantaloupe and Prosciutto with Basil Oil

Servings: Serves 4.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons pine nuts

1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cantaloupe

1/2 pound thinly sliced prosciutto

2 ounces crumbled ricotta salata or feta (about 1/4 cup)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

On a baking sheet toast pine nuts until golden, about 5 minutes, and cool. In a blender purée basil with oil until basil is minced. Pour purée through a very fine sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on solids, and discard solids.

Halve and seed cantaloupe. Cut melon into 1/4-inch-thick wedges and discard rind.

Spoon basil oil onto 4 plates. Arrange melon decoratively over oil and top with prosciutto. Sprinkle melon and prosciutto with pine nuts and cheese.

Cantaloupe Sherbert

Servings: Makes about 3 cups.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons Pernod

two 3-inch strips of lemon zest

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 cantaloupe (about 2 1/2 pounds), seeds and rind discarded and the flesh chopped (about 3 1/2 cups)

1/4 cup heavy cream

Preparation:

In a saucepan stir together the water, the sugar, the Pernod, and the zest, boil the mixture, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved, and simmer it for 5 minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice, transfer the syrup to a bowl, and chill it, covered, until it is cold. In a blender or food processor purée the cantaloupe, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula, until it is smooth, blend in the cream and the syrup, and force the mixture through a coarse sieve set over a bowl, pressing hard on the solids.

Freeze the mixture in an ice-cream freezer according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Fruit Salad Buffet

Take a large tray and line it with grape leaves or large flat leaves of leaf lettuce. Around this dish, on the grape leaves, arrange fruits according to your liking.

Ingredients:

Crescents of peeled cantaloupe

Crescents of peeled honeydew

Bartlett pears, unpeeled, cut in eighths

Clusters of stemmed seedless grapes

Half-rounds of fresh pineapple

Bananas split and quartered

Pitted bing cherries

Mounds of strawberries or raspberries

Sections of orange

Sections of grapefruit

Sprigs of lemon mint

*Celery Seed Dressing

*Honey-Cream Dressing

Mayonnaise and whipped cream, half and half

Preparation:

Decorate the tray with sprigs of lemon mint.

Flank in with bowls of the various dressings.

Let each guest compile a salad with dressing of his own choosing.

With this you might serve date-nut sandwiches filled with cream cheese, hot cheese or herb biscuits, Melba toast, buttered scones, garlic bread, or accompany this salad with cream cheese balls rolled in ground nuts, and blueberry muffins.

Celery Seed Dressing

Servings: Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons onion juice

1/3 cup vinegar

1 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed

Preparation:

Put the sugar, mustard, salt, onion juice, and vinegar into a pint jar and shake well. Add the oil and continue shaking vigorously until all are well blended. Add the paprika and celery seed and give the dressing a final shaking.

hope these help. enjoy.

Not a huge cantalope fan here, growing up our family used to refer to them as musk melons...Serving any type of melon, both my Mom and Dad would sprinle a little salt on it, I always thought it detracted from the sweet melon flavour.As for pumpkin pie, my Dad always like to drizzle his with honey, Mom preferred whipped cream, and I just liked the pumpkin filling and always left the crust behind. To each his own, I guess!

Just salt for me with cantaloupe. Pumpkin pie needs a dollop of real whipped cream and sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg.

I like cantalope over-ripe and chilled, best in late summer.

No toppings or seasonings, but the S&P thing sounds good! I'll try it next summer!

I quarter it, scoop out the seeds and fill the cavity with a good vanilla ice cream. Never heard of the s&p thing, sounds awful.

Get some sticky rice, add it to your cantaloupe, wrap, and serve.

When you pick one out, you make sure it smells sweet but not old. You then cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and then peel off the outer skin. Cut the orange flesh into chunks and just eat it like it is.

My family used to put salt on it, too.

I don't add salt. I love the flavor on it's own.

Salt for me, a little sugar for my husband.

We also like salt on our watermelon.

I eat it plain...but my Mom always salted her cantaloupe and watermelon...yum.