Persimmon Salad with Duck Prosciutto, walnuts and pieces of fresh goat cheese to welcome the fall is the way to go this year! A lightly sliced persimmon bed topped with colourful veggies is irresistible!
Persimmon Salad with Duck Prosciutto is a great fall appetizer, just in time for the Persimmon season. Those fruits are pretty similar to tomatoes in looks; although firmer and drier, you can eat them raw, with or without the skin, dried or cooked. They are both considered “a berry” because of their morphology. Some types of Persimmons are sweeter, others more astringent, but their inside is always composed with a beautiful star shape when cut horizontally, making them perfect for a good-looking salad bed like this one.
How to Choose the Right Persimmon?
The persimmons should still be firm when you buy them. The Hachiyas variety is a little longer than the Fuyu type, which is more of a flat pumpkin shape. The Fuyu persimmon is the sweet one, and you can quickly eat it firmly, while the Hachiyas (the long one) is best if you let it ripe a few days on the counter before consuming it to get rid of its astringency.
Duck Prosciutto: the Underrated
Another element in this salad is the cured duck prosciutto, which is cured duck breasts. This fantastic product is a jewel to enhance any salad in the colder months or to change your charcuterie boards. Strangely, it’s not as popular as the pork version. Prosciutto comes from the Latin meaning ‘to suck the moisture out’ of something. Taking out all the humidity of the Duck breast takes 24 hours of curing and about a week of drying, while the pork version can take up to 2 years.
Variations
The rest of the salad is up to your preference, the type of lettuce, the veggies used, and even the goat cheese could be switched to lovely brie or camembert bits. I’ve used what my good old fridge contained, and voila!
Dressing
I’ve used an exceptional old balsamic vinegar I found in Italy for the dressing. It was aged in 3 different types of wood essence, resulting in this sweet, thick, woody vinegar. So, if you do not own an old balsamic vinegar, you can also use a balsamic cream. The last but not least, a drizzle of freshly pressed, unfiltered olive oil, since it’s season in Spain (where I’m currently living)—simple and sweet dressing for a great mix of flavours underneath.
Other Lovely Salads
So, let’s make this Persimmon Salad with Duck Prosciutto!
Persimmon Salad with Duck Prosciutto
Ingredients
- 1 persimmon
- 50 g duck prosciutto
- 1 tomato
- lettuce of your choice (except rugula)
- 1 red onion
- fresh goat cheese
- walnuts
Dressing
- aged balsamic vinegar (or balsamic glaze)
- extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Peel and cut the persimmon with a mandoline or knife, the thinnest possible, cut lengthwise.
- Add the slices in a circle at the bottom of each plate.
- Add the tomato to the center, then the salad and finish it with the rest of the ingredients.
- Drizzle with a good balsamic vinegar or cream, olive oil, salt and pepper
Nutrition
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13 Comments
this sounds bomb diggity! and i havent seen persimmon in a salad before!
Ahaha! hope you’ll try it;)
This combination sound amazing and it makes me wish I had access to those fabulous European delis and markets that you do so I could find duck prosciutto! I’m pinning this one, and I’ll substitute regular prosciutto . . . thanks for a great recipe!
I love this salad! The sweet persimmons, salty duck prosciutto and creamy goat’s cheese sound fantastic together. And the touch of acid with the vinegar. YUM!
What a great recipe. And thanks for all the info on persimmons. I’m totally enjoying eating them raw right now but I didn’t really know about all the types. I’ll have to keep a better eye out.
This is such a sophisticated grouping of ingredients. It sounds delicious and looks spectacular.
Thank you!
WOW. That looks absolutely incredible, and I love the way you’ve balanced your flavours here. Luckily we can get duck prosciutto here in Vancouver (Oyama is an amazing European-style deli with incredible selection). Like you, I’m not normally big on adding meat to salads, but this sounds like a perfect place to use it. And I’m really glad you used persimmons! They have to be one of the most underappreciated fruits out there, and they’re really quite wonderful. I personally stay away from hachiya persimmons unless they’re incredibly soft, but fuyu is a wonderful variety and a lot easier to work with if you’re new to the fruit. Great recipe, great photos… great stuff!
Thanks Sean! Your comments are always nice to read!
Incredible salad!
For the eyes and the palate!
This recipe was wonderful!
Thanks!