melon carpaccio with key lime yogurt and pistachio.
thin slices of fresh melon paired with tangy, sweet key lime sauce and nutty pistachio makes the perfect summer treat.
Serves: 2 Prep time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 0 minutes jump to recipe.
Carpaccio. A beautiful word that is either not in your vocabulary at all or, conversely, floats around your head constantly interrupting your regular thoughts. Carpaccio. I mean, it’s the prettiest word ever, right?
Generally, carpaccio is is as pretty as it sounds. Usually it’s made with very thinly sliced meats or fish, kind of like a super cool crudo. It’s typically served in a sauce or some sort of infused oil, then maybe garnished with herbs or edible flowers. Pretty, I told you.
I recently worked on set with a stylist who was making beet carpaccio. This began my near-obsession with it (the word, mostly, since I never tried the beets), and I started thinking about what I wanted to carpaccio (yes, I verbed it). Finally, on accident, I discovered the beauty of thinly sliced watermelon.
I basically just shaved a piece of melon off of the rind, kind of mindlessly, and as I lifted the piece to eat it, noticed how beautiful the light shining through looked in the melon flesh. That, I decided, is my carpaccio.
How to carpaccio a melon
Even if you follow everything I suggest, you will likely have a few minutes of trial and error. This isn’t a foolproof technique — watermelon is juicy, cantaloupe is awkward, and both are hard to slice thinly without breaking. Here’s what I did that worked the best:
Use the rind. Genuinely. Just cut about an inch off of the melon on each side and use those pieces. Save your strange watermelon innards for something else.
Use a peeler, preferably a Y-shape, and slice straight across, hesitating as little as possible. Once you hesistate or wiggle the peeler, your piece gets jagged.
Don’t try to use a knife unless you want a carpaccio with more structure (like a scallop carpaccio). I like mine to be organic, with lots of loops and twirls, so I want my pieces as thin as possible.
Try a mandoline. This works better with cantaloupe than with watermelon, and the pieces will be much shorter, but with the right angle you can get some nice slices. I used the thinnest slice to get a few particularly thin pieces.
One last thing: Dry the melons out a little bit. When slicing, place them on paper towels to catch the water. This will help keep your plate clean and will help keep the beautiful shapes that you arrange.
Arranging the melons
Now’s the time to bring out your artistic side! Seriously, don’t overthink this. You could use all flat pieces and layer them across a whole plate. You could twirl them around your fingers and make ribbons that dance. Alternate colors, or don’t. Promise, it will look really cool no matter what you do. Pro tip: Slice really jagged ends off for a cleaner look (I did this with about half, so some had more texture and others were more smooth).
This recipe will yield enough sauce (like enough to drizzle over, not just put a few dots around the plate) for 4 servings. Go as wild as you want with your carpaccio, the sauce will accommodate.
the easiest method: using a Y-peeler on a flat piece of rind
melon carpaccio ingredients
watermelon: This is the main ingredient and obviously the star of the show, but the truth is, you can swap it for honeydew. Any melon will taste great here, it’s not exclusive to watermelon. You can also add berries or use peaches. When sourcing watermelon, I’d recommend just buying a half watermelon, because you want a good piece of rind but won’t need an entire melon. Avoid seeds where possible, they’ll just make peeling harder.
cantaloupe: Can be swapped for any of the above or omitted, totally up to you. I really like the texture and color here, and cantaloupe is very good with key lime. Again, I recommend just buying a half cantaloupe, you won’t need the whole melon.
yogurt: I always use Greek yogurt, but you can certainly just use plain yogurt instead. Just plain flavored, and you can definitely get away with using a single-serve cup of it. I wouldn’t recommend swapping; in a pinch, you could probably get away with using sour cream.
limes: The truth is, you don’t have to use key limes. At all. It won’t make a difference. The real secret? We don’t even use key limes at the bakery — or at least, I’m always told to use regular lime juice (it’s faster). So, this recipe is actually calling for half of a regular lime. If you do use key limes, use a whole lime. Zest first, squeeze second!
sweetened condensed milk: This is the real real secret. Yogurt and lime would taste like exactly that: yogurt and lime. Add sweetened condensed milk? It’s a delicious sauce. I’d recommend seeking out a squeeze tube of it (often at Asian markets) because you’ll only be using a couple spoonfuls. This is the best way to avoid a nearly-full open container.
pistachios: A really good, nutty, savory element, but totally optional if you’re allergic. You could always swap for goat cheese if you wanted savory without the allergen (or should I say, a different allergen).
poppy seeds: Hard to see, but a nice surprise element. Also totally optional. Don’t bother swapping for something similar, just omit this if you don’t have poppy seeds.
mint: Just pluck a few tiny leaves from the garden — they’re small, but admittedly make a big difference. You could also chiffonade bigger leaves and sprinkle them over the carpaccio.
flowers, etc: For garnishing, I used baby sorrel leaves (flowers?). I love the maroon against the bright pink and orange! This part is totally up to you: try to find anything cute or interesting to add just a touch of “pretty” to the dish. Edible flowers are easiest to find — usually they are in the herb section of higher-end grocery stores. The sorrel is from The Chef’s Garden.
this should look a lot like making key lime pie
melon carpaccio pairing options
This is intended as kind of a “healthy” dessert, but by all means, feel free to use it as a sweet appetizer. We ate ours as a snack before dinner, actually (simply because that was my shooting schedule, but it worked nicely).
Here are options to pair with for either appetizer or dessert eating:
pita chips and hummus
scallop crudo (carpaccio party!)
grilled shrimp
vanilla semifreddo
angel food cake
jammy berries over mascarpone
prosecco
