Italian Prosciutto and Cantaloupe Appetizer

Italian prosciutto and cantaloupe appetizer is an easy and delightful beginning to any meal. The delicate salty flavor of prosciutto balances the sweet and juicy cantaloupe to create a taste pleasing appetizer.

This traditional Italian antipasto often appears on the menu in fine Italian restaurants. Italian prosciutto and cantaloupe can even be found in cafes around Rome and other hot spots in Italy.

Try serving Italian prosciutto and cantaloupe attractively arranged the next time you have a dinner party and then sit back and relax. You will be delightfully surprised at all the compliments that will follow your presentation.

Ripe cantaloupe

Prosciutto sliced very thin

Black pepper

Chill the melon, cut it into halves and remove the seeds. Slice the melon into ¾ inch wide slices. Run your knife along the bottom of the flesh close to the rind, being careful not to remove the rind. Leave a small amount of the rind at the end of the slice attached to the flesh. This will allow for an appealing presentation.

Drape 2 wide, very thin slices of prosciutto at an angle over each slice of melon. Allow some of the melon to show through the prosciutto. Grind a small amount of black pepper over top and serve chilled.A "Dessert" is a meal course that usually comes after dinner. Most often Dessert foods are of sweet food but can also be of a strongly flavored food, such as cheese, like cheese cake. The world dessert comes from the Old French word "desservir", which means 'to clear the table'. Often times in the English language dessert is confused with the word desert(note only one "s"), which is a baren piece of land normally with sand as soil.

It wasn't until after the 19th-century where the rise of the middle class, and the mechanization of the sugar industry, brought the privilege of sweets into the general public and unreserved it exclusively for the aristocracy, or as rare holiday treat. This was because sugar became cheaper and more readily available to the general public. As sugar was widely spread, so was the development and popularity of desserts.

In today's culture dessert recipes have become a popular item for discussion, as they are a winning way to win people over at the end of any meal. This is partly because if you serve a mediocre meal, with an excellent dessert, people will remember you for the dessert and forget about the meal.

Most cultures, have a separate final distinction between the main course, and the sweet course. This is not true however in some cultures such as Chinese, who will mix in sweet and savoury dishes throughout the entire meal. Dessert is, often times seen as a separate meal or snack, rather than a course, and can be eaten some time after the meal by many individuals. Because of it's wide spread popularity there are even some restaurants that specialize in desserts which is easy to cook.

Some of the most common desserts are:

- Biscuits or cookies

- Ice creams

- Meringues

- Fruit

- Cakes

- Crumbles

- Custards

- Gelatin desserts

- Puddings

- Pastries

- Pies or tarts