Risotto with Prosciutto Crudo and Melon

An original and flavorful first course proposal. It is a reinterpretation of a classic summer appetizer: ham and melon, one of the most successful combinations of Italian gastronomy, always current and never old-fashioned. A combination that may seem like a modern gimmick, but which actually has ancient roots. Historical sources take us back 2500 years, to the time of Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician and geographer considered "the father of medicine". According to Hippocrates, every food belongs to one of the four elements of nature: air, water, fire and earth, and is completed with hot, cold, dry and wet, to be balanced to maintain good health. At the time, it was customary to combine foods with contrasting tastes, such as sweet and salty, hot and cold, dry and wet. Ham and melon represented the perfect balance: melon, cold and moist food, was completed with ham, hot and dry. For today's recipe we will use the melon of the Cantaloupe or netted variety, the most widespread and appreciated. Raw prosciutto, on the other hand, offers a good amount of protein and a mix of mineral salts such as iron, calcium and phosphorus, precious for fighting drops in blood pressure and muscle fatigue. It also contains magnesium and potassium, which are essential in summer to compensate for the loss of salts due to excessive sweating. Magnesium, in particular, is essential for proper energy metabolism, promotes a good night's rest and fights tiredness and exhaustion. Today I propose risotto, undoubtedly a protagonist preparation in the kitchen, typical of Northern Italy. This preparation dates back to the 1500s, a period of which there is little historical evidence. The first risotto recipes began to appear only in the first half of the nineteenth century. Now let's see what we need to make our Risotto with Raw prosciutto and Melon. Ingredients 320 grams of rice 400 grams of melon pulp 150 grams of San Daniele prosciutto 120 grams of goat cheese 1 shallot 1/2 glass of Wine salt freshly ground black pepper extra virgin olive oil a knob of butter to cream marjoram vegetable broth Ingredients for the broth 1 onion cloves a few celery sticks 2 carrots peppercorns Preparation Let's prepare the broth: let's start by peeling an onion and piercing it with a few cloves. Next, we cut 2 carrots and 2 ribs of celery into pieces. Put the vegetables in a pot with about 3 liters of cold water, bring to a boil and cook for an hour. Let's move on to the preparation of the melon pulp: divide the fruit in half, cut each half into wedges, remove the seeds and the outer skin, and then cut the pulp into cubes of possibly uniform size. Peel the shallot, slice it thinly and put it in a saucepan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Let it flavor, then add the rice and toast it for a few minutes. We blend with the wine from the evaporating the alcohol. We continue by adding, when necessary, a ladle of broth until the end of cooking, which takes about 10-12 minutes. In the meantime, cut the raw ham into strips and make it crispy in a hot non-stick pan. When the rice is cooked, add the melon previously cut into cubes, the raw ham, season with salt and stir in the goat cheese, a knob of butter and marjoram. If desired, we can serve the risotto inside the melon wrapper. In this case, instead of cutting the melon into slices, we leave the fruit whole and empty the pulp with a spoon, creating a sort of melon "cup".