Thursday, July 22, 2010

Dinner Revisited





I love the challenge of using extra ingredients from a dinner and coming up with something new to make. Last week I had lots of limes and some prusciutto leftover, so I just did a search on lime and prusciutto and among the recipes that popped up was turkey wrapped in prusciutto with a melon salsa. I also had a half a bag of hazlenuts that needed to be used, so I found a mixed green and grilled asparagas salad with hazlenut vinagrette. Well, we all loved this dinner so much, that we ended up repeating the whole thing tonight, substituting chicken for the turkey since that's what I had on hand.
I can tell you how to do the chicken (or turkey) without a recipe since it's very simple. The salsa recipe will follow.
First, take your chicken or turkey cutlets and pound them out a bit if they are thick.
You'll need to grate some lime. I needed two limes for four large chicken breasts. Sprinkle lime zest and freshly ground pepper on both sides of each breast. Then take thin slices of prusciutto and wrap them around the chicken. The packaged prusciutto we get comes in slices that fit perfectly. I used one slice on each side of the chicken. If it doesn't quite fit, don't worry, you can piece it together. The prusciutto sticks very well to the meat and there is no need for any toothpicks. Honestly! Now all you do is grill the chicken, just like that. Don't get "turn happy" now- or the prusciutto will not adhere and brown up nicely! Just turn once.
Fresh Melon Salsa*
juice from one lime (I also added the zest from that lime)
1 1/2 c. chopped cantaloupe
1 1/2 c. chopped honeydew
1/2c. shredded cucumber
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 c. fresh basil, chopped
salt and coarsely ground pepper
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Makes about 3 cups. Lots of leftovers!
*adapted from a recipe on goodhousekeeping.com
Be sure to let me know if you tried this and how it turned out! :)

2 comments:

  1. Looks and sounds wonderful! I really like to cook and can spot a great recipe but am not so good with creating new things.

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  2. Tim is a lot better and creating than I am. Like you, I can spot a great recipe and I can also apapt a recipe to suit my tastes. But to create something brand new? I'll leave that to Tim!

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