This salad looks like tricolore papardelle pasta, with vibrant ribbons of pink, green, and orange melon. If you don’t want to bother to make the melon shavings, just use a melon baller or cut the fruit in cubes; the salad will still be beautiful. This is one that both children and adults go nuts for, and the mint gives it an extra burst of freshness.

　　

Ingredients

4 to 6 servings

　　1/2 (about 1 pound) small seedless watermelon (see Cook’s Note)

　　1/2 (about 1 pound) honeydew melon (see Cook’s Note), seeds removed

　　1/2 (about 1 pound) cantaloupe melon (see Cook’s Note), seeds removed

　　1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves, finely chopped, plus mint sprigs, for garnish

　　1/2 cup turbinado or other coarse sugar

　　

Step 1

Cut each melon lengthwise into 1-inch-wide slices. Hold the melon slices at the peel end and, using a sharp vegetable peeler, shave the melon flesh in long ribbons into a large serving bowl.

　　

Step 2

In a small bowl, combine the mint leaves and sugar. Add the mint sugar to the shaved melon and gently toss.

　　

Step 3

Arrange the melon salad on individual salad plates. Garnish with fresh mint sprigs and serve.

　　

Cook’s Note

Step 4

The melons are easiest to shave into ribbons when they are slightly underripe and chilled.

　　Giada at Home by Giada De Laurentiis. Copyright © 2010 by Giada De Laurentiis. Published by the Crown Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.Giada De Laurentiis is the star of Food Network's Everyday Italian and Behind the Bash. She attended the Cordon Bleu in Paris, and then worked in a variety of Los Angeles restaurants, including Wolfgang Puck's Spago, before starting her own catering and private-chef company, GDL Foods. The granddaughter of movie producer Dino De Laurentiis, Giada was born in Rome and grew up in Los Angeles, where she now lives.