Pigeon Cottage Kitchen

We often join forces with friends and have a big lunch or supper where everyone brings a course. No one person then has all the work (or the expense) and we all get to try different things too. So, it’s a winner all round. This was my starter contribution for eight; a delicious salad made with two different types of melon on a bed of rocket and cucumber topped with prosciutto and mozzarella and a fresh mint dressing. It doesn’t take long to assemble and it’s perfect for warm summer days. You could make smaller or larger versions, just scale the quantities up or down.

• 4 balls of buffalo mozarella
• 2 ripe melons, one cantaloupe and one charentais if you want the different colours.
• 1/2 small cucumber
• 16 slices of prosciutto (roughly two packs)
• 1 bag of rocket leaves
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
• Dressing: 3 tbsp light olive oil, 1 tbsp cider vinegar, pinch of salt, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 5 fresh mint leaves

To make…

• Scatter the rocket leaves evenly over the base of your serving dish. Slice the cucumber thinly and arrange on top.
• Remove the peel from each melon and neatly remove the seeds. Cut into quarters and then each quarter in half again so that you have eight slices. Arrange them around the edge of the plate so that each serving of two slices is a slice of each colour.
• Whizz up the dressing with a stick blender until smooth. Drizzle over the melon and green salad.
• Scrunch up the prosciutto slices and place two over each pair of melon slices.
• Tear each mozzarella ball in half and arrange them in the middle. Drizzle with a little extra-virgin olive oil over the top and sprinkle with a little cracked black pepper.
• When you bring it to the table you can either serve each person with two pieces of melon, prosciutto and mozarella or just leave it for people to serve themselves.

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