Pear, Virginia Ham, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Arugula Salad

Name: Pear, Virginia Ham, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Arugula Salad
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 8-ounce chunk Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese; 6 ounces Virginia country ham or prosciutto, sliced paper thin; ¼ cup pine nuts, toasted; 1 cup yellow extra virgin olive oil; freshly cracked pepper; 1 large bunch young arugula, stemmed, washed, spin-dried; 3 ripe Anjou pears

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

America's Best Chefs Cook with Jeremiah Tower

By Jeremiah Tower

Published 2003

About

It is important that Virginia ham be sliced as thinly as one would prosciutto, so that the textures of the ham and the pear are similar to each other. If you don’t have a mechanical slicer, it is best to have it sliced thinly where you buy it.

Ingredients

3 ripe Anjou pears
8-ounce chunk Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
6 ounces

Americas
United States
Gluten-free

Method

Peel the pears. Slice them very thinly by shaving them on 4 sides on a mandoline or Japanese vegetable cutter. Then slice the cheese the same way or with a cheese slicer.

Delicately layer the pear, ham, cheese, arugula, and pine nuts in a mound in the center of each of 6 room-temperature plates. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with pepper, and serve.