- Hey guys, I'm back this week with another
real time recipe for you.
If you are new to this format, this is where I make dinner
in 15 minutes or less in real time,
so that you can see just how quick and easy
it can be to get dinner on the table.
And today, I am going to share with you
a recipe for when it's just too hot to cook,
which is usually in the middle of summer.
This is kind of my go to meal.
It's less of a recipe than really an idea.
All we're gonna do is just lots of cutting,
chopping and assembly, my kind of summer week night meal.
Okay, so the first thing we're gonna do is prep our melon.
So I have a melon here that I am just going
to cut in half, just like this.
And these are my favorite kinds of melons,
the kinds where you can see right here
with this green ribbing.
This is actually a Golden Kiss melon,
but also a Tuscan melon would also be great.
So I'm just gonna scoop out the seeds,
and melons are at their height of perfection right now.
So you can just see how beautiful,
the fragrance of this melon is unbelievable.
They're so ripe and so beautiful,
so we want to take advantage
of what's in season.
That's the best part of summer, right?
Okay, so we're gonna scoop those out.
There we go.
So I'm just gonna move this to the side.
Now that our melons are all seeded and ready to go,
we are just gonna cut them in half, this,
and then we're gonna cut this one in half.
And then we're gonna cut it again, quarters.
There we go.
Now this dinner is enough for like really
two to three people or it would make a great starter too
for four or five people.
So my husband and I will make this for dinner
a lot of the times, and the girls love melons
so it's easy for them to eat that with the prosciutto.
Let's see, but a lot of times especially in the summer
in France, my in-laws will serve melon as a first course,
which we really don't do that here in the States.
Melon's usually a dessert,
but it's great, they'll serve it with just
a little salt and pepper and it's just such a great way
to start a meal.
Alright, now we are going to just remove the rind.
Carefully. (chuckles)
You don't cut your fingers here.
I think I better set that down, there we go.
Like that, see and then you have this little melon boat.
Then we're gonna place our little boat
on the platter.
This, just like that.
Usually get about eight or 10 boats here.
Let's see, this is also a good one for a brunch
because the sweet and the savory of the melon
and we're gonna top it with the prosciutto,
it's so good.
Let's see, gosh this melon is like beautiful.
Melons are also a great thing to grow
if you have a garden going.
They do take a lot of space, so I will say that.
You just put like a few seeds in the ground
and they will take off because they're one of those
climbing vines like zucchini or squash,
you need a lot of room for them.
Okay, let's see, enough here.
This is probably the hardest most time consuming part
(chuckles) of the recipe but the rest of it
is gonna go pretty quick.
Okay, let's see.
I better not over do it, I'm going to save this melon
for some breakfast and we'll just go with that.
Oh, excuse me, okay.
Now the other thing we're gonna do is just go
take our prosciutto here and when you get to the store,
if you have the choice, I say always go
with the imported prosciutto.
I think the quality is better than the domestic.
It's a little more expensive but I find you're not
usually using that much of it.
Usually about a quarter of a pound to half a pound
feeds two to four people.
See, and then you want them to slice it really thin.
See how beautiful that is?
Because it's a pretty salty meat, so if you had it
thinly sliced it doesn't end up being as overpowering.
And then we are just gonna delicately drape our prosciutto
over our melon.
See how pretty that is?
Okay, I usually will put one to two pieces of prosciutto
on the melon, just like that.
There ya go.
And then you could also just serve a little prosciutto
on the side, if you would like as well,
because sometimes you want to have a little bit more
prosciutto than you have melon.
There you go, first course ready to go.
So now I'm just gonna set this aside.
And I'm gonna get this other platter here
and this is gonna be for our tomato salad.
Let's give ourselves some room here.
Okay, I'm gonna keep our prosciutto wrapped up.
Okay, now see how easy that was?
Now the next step is going to be
this beautiful tomato salad.
And in the summertime I've got all my tomatoes
that are just coming up and ripening
and this is the perfect type of salad
to serve with that.
So, we're gonna start with burrata cheese.
Now if you're not familiar with burrata
it's a type of mozzarella.
And these are the kinds that I think are best
when they come in this little pouch like this,
'cause you know it's really fresh.
And we're gonna unwrap it,
and they have these beautiful curds inside.
I'm actually gonna show you what that looks like
when we're all said and done here.
I'll taste it and I'll cut into it and you can see.
You see they come in these little pouches
and I'm just going to pop them in the center.
See, look how beautiful that is.
Like that, and this is where you're getting all the protein,
so that's why this is a meal that actually will fill you up
because between the prosciutto
and the protein of the cheese, you're good.
Alright.
Yep, let's get rid of my messy papers here.
Okay, now for the beautiful crown and glory, the tomatoes.
So one of the reasons why I love to grow
multicolored tomatoes is because of this.
To have a beautiful salad that is so colorful.
So normally I'll do like purple tomatoes like this,
like these look like Cherokee Purples,
just some, you know, basic red tomatoes are always good.
And then of course, some yellow tomatoes.
So here we get some of these.
Now if you want to learn more
about how to grow your own tomatoes,
you can head on over to my garden channel
and watch my tutorial all about growing tomatoes.
Okay, so let's start maybe with these big meaty
purple tomatoes, so we're just gonna slice them,
like this.
Now tomatoes, you don't want to ever put them in the frig
because it will really start to affect their texture.
The best place for a tomato is right on your window sill
or your countertop.
Okay, we're gonna place these all around.
Now here's what I do because, you know,
I do like to be decorative.
Even though it's a quick and easy meal,
it doesn't take that much effort.
We're going to just get the red and the yellow,
get these going, and we are going to alternate our colors.
See that's why this is gonna be so pretty.
So we're gonna do red, then we're gonna do yellow,
oh that's really the purple, purple, sort of purple,
yellow, red, and then we're just gonna go
all the way around here,
like this, there.
And this is just such a great way
to use up all of these beautiful tomatoes
that are suddenly starting to appear.
There, see look how beautiful.
It looks kinda strange because you've got those
green seeds in it, but don't let that fool you.
There is a ton of flavor in these Cherokee Purple tomatoes,
and they are so delicious.
And that's the other thing that's nice
about a salad like this is each tomato
kinda has a slightly different taste
so it makes a simple salad really interesting.
Now, let's see.
Maybe we'll put another,
one like that.
And then you can just kinda fill in
where you want, this is probably enough tomatoes.
Let's see.
Put these back.
Okay, these tomatoes also make a beautiful
easy tomato sauce if you threw them all in the oven
and just roasted them.
That's another really easy meal
that you can do with home grown tomatoes.
Okay, there we go.
Alright, so now we're going to just drizzle
some of this gorgeous extra virgin olive oil
all over our salad.
So when you get to the store you'll see lots
of different types of olive oil
and for salads I always like to use extra virgin olive oil
because that's the oil that has all the flavor in it.
And that is because it is the first press of the olive
so it's really dark green, it's beautiful,
it's delicious, it's great for a salad
that is simple like this 'cause there isn't
a lot of other things going on.
So you just want the purest, most beautiful olive oil.
And then because the tomatoes are pretty, you know, acidic,
they sort of create their own juice,
I don't put any vinegar on it.
You'll see, the tomatoes are enough.
Alright, and then we're gonna take
just some of this Fleur de sel sea salt.
The reason why I like the Fleur de sel
is because it's salt without being overly salty,
if that makes sense.
It's a beautiful finishing salt to put on salads
or tomatoes like this.
And then we're just gonna put a little pepper.
Like that.
And then the final step is our gorgeous basil,
which this is another video, you can head over
to the garden channel to learn how to grow your own basil.
But I do like to have a combination of colors,
because I think it's so pretty to use the green basil
and the purple basil.
You see, this is what you get when you grow your own basil.
It can be hard a lot of times in the grocery store
to find purple basil.
But when it's just outside in a pot, easy peasy right?
Okay, and then we're just gonna give this a chop like that.
I think I need a better knife than that.
I like to keep it kinda rough because I think it just
looks pretty good that way.
There you go, and then we're gonna sprinkle it
just on the cheese, like that.
On the tomatoes, okay.
So now we have our beautiful tomato salad
and let's not forget our gorgeous prosciutto melon.
There you have it, dinner in 15 minutes or less.
I love this idea because it's so beautiful, it's so summery.
The whole thing is at room temperature
and if you don't want to cook in the hot summer months,
this is the go to meal.
Alright, now I did promise I was gonna show you,
hang on, what the burrata cheese looked like.
So let's just dig in and you'll be able to take a look.
Let's see.
See when you cut into it, you can see.
You see that beautiful, beautiful curds in there?
My kids call it the chewing gum cheese
'cause it does sort of look like chewing gum,
but it's so delicious, it's so good with the tomatoes.
I gonna just try this.
I'm gonna do small bites.
So that I can talk after, okay.
Yum, you see you take a little tomato with the basil
and the cheese, down the hatch, ready?
Hmm.
So delicious.
So creamy, so fresh, so summery.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
And I will see you back here next time
for another delicious and easy recipe.
Until then, bye.
♫ You know I could've been a painter
♫ Mix in some color to your life's
♫ Create a disaster piece
♫ Named the man and he
♫ Is god of the wive
♫ Some day
♫ La la la la la la
♫ One way
♫ La la la la la la la
♫ Some day
♫ We can make it out of here