Pasta with Melon

This is an oddball combination, at least to me.  Melon is one of those fruits that I'm never quite sure what to do with, besides eating it straight.  You can't really cook with it (can you?), and it's too watery to bake with, so I guess you're left with eating it cold on a hot day.  Which is awesome.  But it's hard to eat a whole melon by yourself as a single person, and it's even a lot of fruit for two.  Those baby watermelons seem to be the way to go, except that's a lot of preparation costs for not a lot of fruit (thanks, optimal foraging theory), and the pre-sliced saran-wrapped chunks you can buy at the store never look quite as appealing.

It just doesn't seem like this would go well with pasta, right?

And that's all to say that I've never quite figured out what to do with a melon.  Matt is a big melon fan, which strikes me as odd.  Of all the fruits...  I've always liked cantaloupe, but only got into watermelon and honeydew as an adult.  And even then, it's not something I want all of the time (unlike broccoli or raspberries, for example).  So, I saw this recipe in the May Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine, and figured it would at least be worth a try - and would be a good way to use up part of a melon.


It's pretty simple - a mustard vinaigrette tossed with cantaloupe, honeydew, and red onion and served over pasta.  The recipe is meant to serve six - I scaled it back to make just enough for the two of us, and decided that two melons was one too many for two people, so I only used cantaloupe.  I've long liked whole-grain pasta, but Matt is still getting used to it, so I made half whole-grain and half regular pasta all mixed together.  Also, the recipe calls for using melon balls.  I don't have a melon baller, and I think balls might be a lot of melon per bite, so I just cut the melon into small-ish chunks.  I think that worked out really well, since the melon pieces were small enough to eat in the same bite with a piece of pasta or an onion.  The recipe also calls for shredded romano cheese, but we skipped that part and didn't miss it. 

I like the red onions slivered, Matt thinks chunks would be better.

I had a lot of reservations about making this.  First, I was a little wary of the cantaloupe - none of them seemed super ripe at the store, but the one we bought was surprisingly delicious, so that worked out well.  I also wasn't sure how the mustard and melon would work together, but the vinaigrette added a nice tang to the otherwise sweet melon, so I'm on board with that now, too.  And lastly, I was not convinced that melon and pasta would work well together.  They are such different tastes and textures, and melons are so sweet and juicy and pasta is not.  I couldn't wrap my mind around it.  I was also pretty sure that the pasta shouldn't be warm - warm cantaloupe seems wrong to me - so I ran it under cool water before tossing it in with the melon.  I think that was definitely a good idea, making this a refreshing pasta salad dish for a hot day.  Of course, now that I'm typing the recipe up, I see that Rachael Ray also calls for cooled pasta, which I missed in my scan of the recipe yesterday.  Oh well, great minds...

And surprisingly delicious!

Despite my reservations, this ended up being really delicious.  Matt and I both really liked it, and the juicy sweetness of the melon actually worked really well with the pasta.  The melon is counterbalanced by the piquancy of the red onion and the tang of the vinaigrette.  I guess when you think about it, tomato sauce also works well with pasta because it's juicy and kind of sweet/tangy, so I probably shouldn't be that surprised that this worked out well (also, since it was published in a magazine probably means that they'd tested it and liked it).  It comes together pretty quick, and it's also the type of recipe that could be easily made ahead.  So bonuses all around!

Pasta Salad with Melon

This is from the May 2012 Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine. 

1 Tbsp each lime, lemon, and orange juice
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 Tbsp dijon
1/2 cup olive oil
1 lb. cooked, cooled rotini (or other short pasta)
1/4 cup shredded romano
1 1/2 cups each cantaloupe and honeydew balls
1 red onion, sliced

Whisk all ingredients up to pasta; season with salt and pepper.  Toss with rest of ingredients.  Serves 6.