FRIED WATERMELON & PROSCIUTTO WITH SWEET BALSAMIC

I invented this dish when I was asked to appear on Saturday Kitchen and persuade viewers that watermelon was worth eating. It was delicious, so I hope I succeeded. But I’m nervous of claiming originality ever since the 1970s when I thought I’d invented Stilton soup (I’d just been on a press trip to Denmark and eaten Samsoe soup, and had concluded it would be even better with Stilton). I served it at Leith’s Restaurant and my catering company, wrote it up in my Daily Mail column, and pretty soon it started appearing in magazines and on the menus of other restaurants. I was pretty pleased with myself – until I opened a cookery book from the 1920s and read a recipe for Derbyshire Stilton soup, which was almost identical to mine: basically a celery soup with a ton of Stilton whisked in at the end.

Serves 4

1tbsp pine nuts

1 small watermelon

8 slices of prosciutto ham

3tbsp olive oil

A small handful of rocket leaves

60g (2¼oz) feta, crumbled

A handful of pomegranate seeds Balsamic glaze (from supermarkets) to serve

Salt and black pepper Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until golden. Tip out onto a saucer to cool.

With a large, sharp knife, halve the melon across the equator and carefully cut even 2.5cm-wide slices from each half. Trim the skin from the slices, then cut 8 batons about 7.5cm long. (You won’t need the rest of the melon but you could use it for other dishes.)

When ready to cook (but not before or the salt in the ham will draw out the water in the melon and make it slippery), wrap a slice of prosciutto around each melon piece.

Heat half the olive oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Once hot, fast-fry the watermelon in batches, frying the side with the prosciutto join first, to stop it unravelling as you turn it to fry on all sides. You want to fry fast enough that the prosciutto crisps up and browns but the watermelon stays raw. Remove from the pan and set two batons on each serving plate.

Scatter the melon pieces with the rocket, feta, toasted pine nuts and pomegranate seeds. Drip or drizzle the rest of the olive oil over the plates, and drip a touch (no more than 1tsp per plate) of balsamic glaze on each. Season lightly with salt (remember the ham is salty) and generously with coarsely milled black pepper.