Wondering what to do with prosciutto? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 141 recipes to put it to work.

What is prosciutto?

Prosciutto is Italian dry-cured ham, sliced so thin you can almost see through it. The leg of pork is salted, then hung to age for months while the moisture slowly leaves and the flavor concentrates into something sweet and faintly nutty.

The kind you spot at the deli counter is prosciutto crudo, which means raw. It is never cooked during curing, and salt and time and slow-moving air do all the work.

Don't confuse it with prosciutto cotto, which is a cooked ham closer to the pink slices in a lunch sandwich.

Two names carry the reputation: Prosciutto di Parma and San Daniele. Both are made from nothing but pork and salt, with no added nitrates. Both are worth the extra dollar over a generic domestic version.

Working With Prosciutto

Prosciutto is at its best raw and barely touched. Lay the slices loose on a board with melon, figs, or a hard cheese, or drape a slice over a breadstick. Heat is optional and often a mistake.

When you do cook it, add it at the very end. The fat is delicate and turns from silky to tough if you simmer it for long.

Stir torn pieces into pasta off the heat, or tuck a slice under chicken the way Chicken Saltimbocca (Chicken Cutlets with Prosciutto & Sage) does, where it crisps just enough against the cutlet.

You can also crisp it on purpose. Lay slices flat on a sheet pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 8 to 10 minutes until they shatter like a chip. Crumble that over a salad or a frittata such as the Breakfast Wild Rice & Mushroom Frittata.

It wraps beautifully too. Roll it around asparagus or melon, or bake it into Italian Prosciutto Cheese Sticks, where the salt plays off the dough and cheese.

What It Pairs With

Prosciutto wants sweet and fresh things next to it. Melon and figs are the classics, and they work because the fruit's sugar balances the cured salt. Fresh mozzarella with ripe tomato and basil does the same job in the Italian Prosciutto, Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato, & Basil Panini.

It also loves greens that can take a salty hit, like the collards in Southern Living Quick Collards with Prosciutto, where a little ham seasons a whole pot.

The most common mistake is salting a dish that already has prosciutto in it. The ham is salt-forward on its own, so taste before you reach for the shaker.

The second mistake is buying it pre-sliced and stacked in a sealed tray, where the slices fuse into a gummy brick. Fresh from the slicer, laid on paper, is far better.

Substitutes

For a board or a wrap, other dry-cured raw meats slot in cleanly. Speck is smoked and a touch firmer. Serrano ham, the Spanish cousin, is drier and more savory. Bresaola, made from beef, is leaner and works if you want less fat.

For cooking, where you mainly want salty pork fat, pancetta or even bacon will do, though both bring more moisture and bacon adds smoke. Use a little less since they render heavier. For a crisp garnish, a sheet of baked pancetta gets you close.

There is no real swap for the paper-thin texture that dissolves on the tongue. If that is the point of the dish, buy the real thing.

Buying and Storing Prosciutto

Buy it freshly sliced at the counter whenever you can, and ask for it laid between sheets of paper rather than stacked. The slices should look rosy with a clean ribbon of white fat, not gray or dried at the edges.

Pre-packaged sealed trays keep longer and travel fine for cooking, but the texture never matches a fresh slice for a board.

Wrap freshly sliced prosciutto snugly and keep it in the coldest part of the fridge, where it holds two to three days before the edges dry and darken. A whole or half leg is a different animal and keeps for weeks in a cool spot.

Sealed packs last until their printed date, and once opened, use within a few days.

You can freeze it, but the fat texture suffers, so save frozen prosciutto for cooking rather than a board.

Quick facts

Where to find prosciutto: Prosciutto is usually found in the deli section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

火腿

British (UK) term

Prosciutto

en français

prosciutto

en español

prosciutto

Recipes using prosciutto

There are 141 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 141 recipes

More prosciutto recipes

• Asparagus with Prosciutto
• Borlenghe
• Calzone(Large)
• Cheese-Stuffed Manicotti
• Chicken Chow Mein
• Chicken Prosciutto with Mushroom Sauce
• Classic Saltimbocca with White Wine Sauce
• End-Of-Month Vegetable Soup
• Fettuccine with Prosciutto
• Fettucini Florentine
• Garlic Stuffed Jumbo Pasta Shells
• Golden Asparagus & Prosciutto Bundles
• Italian Rollups
• Mango & Prosciutto
• Prosciutto Di Parma with Warm Fig Tartlets
• Prosciutto Di Parms with Fig Tartletts
• Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus
• Quick Fruit & Ricotta Pizza
• Quick Prosciutto, Mozzarella & Basil Pizza