Iberian ham and melon salad with dried fruit vinaigrette

The word salad is immediately associated with good weather, free time, heat and healthy, light meals. And it is that when summer arrives what best comes in is a good salad, cold, warm or hot, depending on what the body and the palate ask for. With respect to cold salads, it is true that it increases its consumption in the summer season, a luxury for our palates and for our health, they are usually very healthy dishes full of lettuce, fruit and light quality sauces, vinaigrettes of all types and flavors .

“Iberian ham and melon salad with dried fruit vinaigrette”, I hope you like it and comment on what you think. A great adaptation of the traditional melon with ham. This combination originates from Italian cuisine, so popular that in France it became known as “Italian Melon” (Proscitto col melone). It arrived in Spain as early as the 17th century and was so widely accepted that it is considered its own when using Serrano ham in its production. It is currently one of the most popular summer dishes.

Salad preparation

1. We divide the melon slice into thin sheets. We place a slice of Iberian ham on top of each one and roll each sheet in a spiral.
2. We wash and spin the lettuces. We wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them into quarters.
3. We put the vinegar in a saucepan on the fire and let it reduce until obtaining a syrupy texture. We reserve.
4. We toast the nuts. Each type of dried fruit must be roasted separately since their concentration of oil and weight are different and when roasted together they can burn some and leave others raw. We start with walnuts and end with hazelnuts. We put them in a frying pan with oil over low heat while stirring until they are golden, being careful with the times since when you remove them from the fire they will continue to take color. We do not toast the raisins as these will be a decoration.
5. For the dried fruit vinaigrette we need to pass half of the dried fruits through a crusher, here if they are all worth together. And when they are finely crushed, we separate a pinch for the final assembly, the latter we reserve with half of the dried fruits without crushing. The rest we add to a glass to mix them with the oil and vinegar, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, emulsify until we have a well-bound vinaigrette and reserve for the final assembly.
6. We place in the center of a serving plate with the help of a 12 cm ring. a bottom of various lettuces with the cherry tomatoes. We spread the melon and ham rolls on top and lightly season with the vinaigrette. Sprinkle with some reserved dried fruit and finish with a string of reduced vinegar. We decorate with various fresh herbs of our choice and a handful of dried cranberries.