Santa Claus is Coming to Town

...Santa Claus melon, that is.

My friends Jill and Justin had a garage sale this weekend, so I took Maxx for a little walk over to their place to hang out for a bit and see if there was anything that I couldn't live without.  I ended up coming home with a free melon.  I think that's a garage sale first, at least for me.  We were talking about the pasta sauce I made from a canary melon, and Justin said someone had brought a "weird melon or something" to a party they had, and they weren't going to use it, so did I want it.  When Jill brought out this odd looking fruit, I knew I had to give it a go.

Turns out the Santa Claus melon is very similar to the canary melon, but is shaped like a football and has a green and yellow rind.  When you cut into it, the seeds are very similar to cantaloupe, and the flesh is pale green like honeydew, but so much sweeter and juicier.  The brighter the yellow, the sweeter it is.  They are in peak season in California and Arizona from June until October.  If you see them in the winter, they are most likely from South America, so try them now.

Since I just made my melon pasta sauce, I was wondering what else to do with this sweetie.  Sometimes you just have to go with classic pairings.....like prosciutto and melon.  Now what?  PIZZA!

I brushed pizza dough with a little olive oil and tomato sauce and topped it with fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced sweet onion, melon and prosciutto.  When it came out of the oven I tossed some basil leaves onto the steaming pie and managed to snap a pic before diggin in....

When you put those classic food parings together, like prosciutto and melon, you really can't go wrong.  Just a little balsamic vinegar to dip it in, and I'm a happy girl!  Though I think I might be in trouble with Justin, because I didn't save him a slice.  Oooops....but dang, it was goooooood.

Yum it up!