Prosciutto with Cantaloupe, Watermelon and toasted Hazelnuts

Several weeks ago I took my daughter to Fiola da Fabio Trabocchi (Fiola) for her birthday. Featuring Northern Italian cuisine, the restaurant comes highly recommended (great reviews in the Washington Post and the Washingtonian among others). Reservations are a must if you are going for dinner on a Saturday evening, and I was glad that I had reserved a table inside as it was too hot to sit on the outside terrace. The restaurant's decor is modern with a few interesting accents - I liked the wooden Pinocchios sitting on a shelf in the window in one of the rooms, and there is a rather large bar with a separate bar menu.

Our appetizers and main courses were absolutely delicious. I particularly enjoyed my appetizer and decided to recreate it at home - so here is my variation on it:

Prosciutto with Cantaloupe, Watermelon and toasted Hazelnuts

Ingredients:

1 oz of prosciutto

1/2 cup of each cantaloupe and watermelon balls (use a melon baller to make the balls and remove seeds from the watermelon

1/2 cup of dry-roasted, unsalted hazelnuts, toasted and chopped into coarse pieces (I did not remove the skin of the hazelnuts)

1/2 - 1 tsp high-quality balsamico (I used a 12-year-old balsamico from Acetaia Leonardi which I had picked up during my cooking class in Tuscany)

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, washed and dried

• Arrange prosciutto slices, melon balls and hazelnuts on a platter.
• Drizzle with balsamico and sprinkle with thyme.
• If desired, serve with baguette.

Serves 1-2 as an appetizer

Villani di Pastorello di Parma - Delicious Prosciutto from Parma