Cold Melon with Mint and Amaretti Cookie Crumbles

Cold Melon with Mint and Amaretti Cookie Crumbles – in other words, souped-up melon - is a great way to use those sweet summer melons and make them into something company-worthy. 

We wait all year for summer melons. Sweet, ripe, cold, and juicy, they are some of summer’s most delicious perks.

This is a recipe for Cold Melon with Mint and Amaretti Cookie Crumbles – in other words, souped-up melon. If you follow it, you’ll dig up your melon baller and stand at the kitchen counter to do the meditative work of scooping out melons. Like cookies baking in the oven in the fall, the aroma of the melons will make your kitchen smell like summer. You’ll also make a quick mint simple syrup, and then you will crumble some cookies to sprinkle over the top of it all. Like cookies baking in the oven, the melon balls will call you, and you’ll be in sweet, drippy melon heaven.

For our version, we used watermelon and cantaloupe, and we added a bright yellow Canary melon, which was soft and sweet, and a green-and-yellow striped Santa Claus melon, which reminded us of a honeydew. Any melon or mix of them will do.

You might understandably be a melon purist. And you will be right that summer melon really needs no embellishment. But if you want something a little more special, company-worthy even, Cold Melon with Mint and Amaretti Cookie Crumbles is your friend.

Cold Melon with Mint and Amaretti Cookie Crumbles

¼ cup sugar
¼ cup water
20 fresh mint leaves, 10 of them minced
2 melons, flesh scooped out with a melon baller (or 4 melon halves if you want to include different types)
Handful of amaretti cookies, placed in a zip-top bag and coarsely crushed
Lime wedge

In a small saucepan, bring the sugar, water, and 10 whole mint leaves to a boil. Simmer for 1 minute, then take the syrup off the heat and let it steep for about 30 minutes.

When the syrup has cooled, gently toss the melon balls in a large bowl and pour the syrup over. Toss again with the minced mint. Refrigerate for about an hour to make sure the melon is very cold. Top with the cookie crumbles and a squeeze of lime.