Easy melon bruschetta recipe
This melon bruschetta recipe with lemony ricotta cheese and honey is a delicious and easy sweet snack. Melon bruschetta is a great appetizer for summer parties. It is light, fresh and absolutely delicious.
I’ll give you variations and substitutions where I can, plus helpful tips and tricks for success. Read on for this info as well as the recipe. If you’d like to skip straight to the recipe, use the jump to recipe button at the top of the post.
You may also be interested in my heirloom tomato bruschetta and my apple bruschetta recipes. For ease of browsing, you can find all of my appetizer recipes in one place.
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Melon bruschetta
I love having people over and feeding them. It’s my love language. However, this does not mean that I need to be stuck in the kitchen all day. This is something that took me a very long time to understand. Having friends over doesn’t have to be a production.
Which leads me to this bruschetta recipe – it is quick, easy and delicious.
When you think of bruschetta, you likely think of a tomato topping. And you’d be right, because it is the most popular topping, but it isn’t the only topping. You can top a crostini with anything you like and in this case, we are using melon.
Another note on this recipe – a light drizzle of honey over the bruschetta took this to another level of delicious. It was already pretty tasty, but when I added just a little honey, wow was it good. This simple bite is my new summer starter. It is light and fresh, which is perfect for warm weather and it is great for sharing with friends.
What you need to know
This isn’t something that can be made ahead of time, however, the components can be prepped the day before, then quickly assembled right before serving.
You can make the ricotta mixture, then store it in an airtight container in the fridge – this will actually give the lemon zest more time to perfume the ricotta. Make the melon balls, cover, and store them in the fridge. Finally, toast the bread and store it in an airtight container on the counter.
Use your favorite melon for this recipe. Some great options are cantaloupe, Hami, Lemon Drop, honeydew or Crenshaw.
This recipe makes 2 dozen pieces. When I make this for get-togethers, I plan on 3 pieces per person, so it should feed 8 people. You can easily scale up or down, depending on the number of friends/family you are feeding.
Melon bruschetta recipe ingredients
This easy bruschetta recipe with melon comes together quickly with just a handful of ingredients.
- Bread – A loaf of French bread, or a baguette is the perfect option.
- Olive oil and sea salt – This is added to the bread to season it and give it a bit of flavor.
- Ricotta – Full fat or reduced fat are your best bets. Fat free ricotta is disappointing.
- Substitutions: A few good swaps for ricotta would be cream cheese, fresh goat cheese, mascarpone, farmer’s cheese, or cottage cheese.
- Melon – Use your favorite variety of melon, sliced thinly or scooped into balls to top the toast.
- Lemon zest – A bit of lemon zest stirred into the ricotta gives it a citrusy zing.
- Honey – This adds a touch of sweetness to the bruschetta. You can swap honey for agave or date syrup.
How to make
Here’s a quick summary of how to make melon bruschetta. Please see the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full recipe.
First, the bread needs to toast in the oven for about 12 – 15 minutes. While it’s toasting, make melon balls (or slice it) and stir a little lemon zest into the ricotta.
As soon as the bread has cooled, pile everything on top, give it a drizzle of honey, and you’re done. I added blueberries for a pop of color and they pair nicely. Same goes for the herbs – they provide color and flavor.
Toasting bread for crostini
In order to make this melon bruschetta recipe, we need to toast some bread. How do we toast crostini? I toast the sliced baguette on a sheet pan in the oven until it is light brown and crispy. Basically, what we are making is croutons. Giant croutons.
I like to give my bread a light drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt before toasting. It bumps up the flavor and makes it extra delicious. And let’s go ahead and say that what we want is delicious. Not good, not fine, not any of those adjectives. Delicious and nothing less.
Melon bruschetta recipe FAQ’s
You can make the components ahead of time, but I wouldn’t recommend assembling them too far in advance. The bread will get soggy. You can make the melon balls, or slice the melon the day before. You can also make the ricotta mixture ahead of time. Toast the bread up to 24 hours in advance and store in an airtight container.
Melon and prosciutto is a classic combination. To add a bit of this salty Italian ham to your crostini, simply cut a thin slice of prosciutto in half and gently gather it into a loose bundle and nestle it into the ricotta before topping with melon.
Variations and substitutions
- Prosciutto – For a twist on the classic prosciutto-wrapped melon, you could add a bit of prosciutto to this and completely change the flavor. It adds a salty note which is nice with the sweet from the melon and honey.
- Blueberries – The blueberries added a nice pop of color, and added sweet-tart flavor to the crostini.
- Herbs – Because I grow a few herbs, I walked outside and snipped some to garnish. I like lemon thyme and basil with this combination. Chives would also be a great option.
Helpful tools and equipment
- Heavy duty sheet pans that hold up to high temps without warping.
- Parchment paper sheets are MUCH easier to use than tearing pieces off of a roll.
- Serrated knife – The knife is the exact one that I own and have used for over 15 years. It STILL works beautifully. That was a great investment.
- Melon baller – If you want to make cute little melon balls, you’ll need a tool like this to make them. This one has 2 sizes!
- Microplane zester/grater – A good zester will last you through thousands of lemons and I can attest to that with this one.
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Easy melon bruschetta recipe
Ingredients
- 1 baguette sliced 1/8″ thick into 24 pieces
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1½ tsp. sea salt
- 1 melon cut in half and seeded
- 2 ½ cups ricotta cheese
- zest of 1 lemon
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- 1 tbsp. honey
- 1 tbsp. fresh thyme or basil optional, but recommended
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Place sliced baguette on baking sheet.
- Brush baguette slices with 2 tbsp. olive and sprinkle with 1 tsp. salt.
- Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until lightly browned and crisp.
- While bread is toasting; combine ricotta, lemon zest, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- To make melon balls, cut melon in half and scoop out seeds. Using a melon baller, scoop flesh into balls and set aside.
- Remove baguette (crostini) from oven and set aside to cool. When it has cooled to room temperature, begin assembly.
- Place roughly 1 ½- 2 tbsps. of ricotta filling on each piece of bread, then top with melon balls, drizzle with honey, and add fresh herbs, if desired.
Notes
- The recipe makes 24 pieces of crostini. A serving is 3 pieces, so this should be enough for 8 people.
- If you are making melon balls, you’ll need 48 total to put 2 on each piece of crostini.
- If you prefer to slice the melon instead – peel and seed the melon, then slice into thin pieces to place on top of bread.
- I used white pepper instead of black, to keep the cheese mixture white. You can use either white or black pepper.
- For an additional pop of color, add blueberries or other fruit to the bruschetta.
- To add prosciutto, cut one slice of prosciutto in half, then gently gather it into a loose bundle and place on top of the ricotta cheese.
- Adding fresh herbs to the bruschetta adds a ton of flavor. Some great options are basil, thyme (lemon thyme or regular), chives, or marjoram.
Nutrition
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Originally published 6/5/19. Most recent update 7/11/24.