by Katie Morris of Katie at the Kitchen Door
Melon can be a tricky ingredient: if underripe, you’ll find it sitting by itself in a mostly empty bowl of fruit salad, the berries and oranges and other good things all picked out. But when it’s ripe and in season? Melon can be incredible—sweet and fragrant and juicy in the best way. It’s not a very common recipe ingredient, but melon, prosciutto, and mozzarella are classic Italian companions, and for good reason. The salty prosciutto, creamy mozzarella, and sweet melon play off each other beautifully.
Here, I’ve taken the combination and turned it into a grilled pizza, complete with a light alfredo sauce and a generous amount of burrata cheese piled on top. In fact, I’ve grilled the melon, too—making it even juicier and sweeter than it already was. Not essential, of course, but if you’ve already got the grill fired up, why not?
Grilled Melon, Prosciutto, and Burrata Pizza
Serves Four
2 tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2 tbsp flour
1 cup whole milk
4 oz. firm mozzarella cheese, cut into small slices, divided
Black pepper
1 pound fresh pizza dough, preferably homemade
1 tsp olive oil, for brushing
¼ small melon, cut into very thin wedges and rinds removed and discarded
1 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto
4 oz. fresh burrata cheese
Preheat a grill to medium-high heat. Let the grill heat up while you prepare the sauce and pizza toppings.
For the alfredo sauce:
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the minced garlic and thyme leaves and saute, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add the flour and stir to fully mix into the melted butter. Cook, stirring, until the better is just starting to brown, about 1 minute, then slowly drizzle in the milk, stirring or whisking constantly to incorporate the flour into the milk. The milk should thicken as it mixes with the flour. Once you have added all the milk, cook the sauce for 2-3 minutes longer, still stirring, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove the sauce from the heat. Stir half of the sliced mozzarella into the sauce until it is fully melted, season sauce to taste with black pepper, then set the alfredo sauce aside.
For the pizza:
Stretch the pizza dough into a large, thin rectangle, using your hands to work the dough into the proper shape. Brush one side of the dough with olive oil, then transfer the pizza to the grill, oiled side down. Grill one side just until dough is partially cooked through and crust is slightly charred, about 2-3 minutes. Remove the dough from the grill and set aside.
Next, use tongs to place the melon wedges on the grill, taking care not to drop them through the grates. Grill for just 45-60 seconds, or until grill marks have appeared, then flip the melon slices and grill for 45-60 seconds on the other side, then remove the melon slices to a plate.
Arrange the pizza toppings on the side that has already been grilled: spread the alfredo sauce thinly over the surface of the dough, then arrange the prosciutto slices, grilled melon, and remaining mozzarella over the top of the pizza.
Return the pizza to the grill, raw (uncooked) side down. Close the lid and cook until the mozzarella has melted and the bottom of the crust is starting to blacken, about 3 minutes, then remove from the grill. Tear the burrata into pieces and scatter over the top of the pizza.
Serve immediately.
Thank you, Katie! This looks amazing! And thank you to Sarah Ann Noel for her help coordinating this series.
Katie Morris is the blogger and photographer behind Katie at the Kitchen Door, a food blog that showcases creative twists on everyday recipes. Based in Boston, she’s a New Englander through and through, but her frequent travels have taken her as far afield as Russia, Colombia, Hong Kong, and Japan, and each new destination inspires more delicious recipes. When she’s not in the kitchen or on a plane, Katie enjoys running, ballet, and making overly ambitious attempts at vegetable gardening with her fiancé.
P.S. I think the first time I really really realized what melon could be was at this farm dinner. I had no idea.
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