Discount Meat Bins - Prosciutto Heaven!

Sounds disgusting? Just hear me out.

As a fan of prosciutto (but not so much cold cuts), I find that spending $35/1 kg ($3.5/100g) of thinly sliced proscuitto a little expensive for my taste. Plus, I don't use it all that often (it's so high in sodium!), so it ends up drying out anyways. I know, some say "Go to Costco! It's cheaper there!". But there's also SOOO much packaging that's wasted!

Well, I'm also a fan of "waste not, want not". I suppose seeing traumatic images of starving children in Ethiopia after not being able to finish my dinner does that to me.

So - a good way to get prosciutto that'll last forever in the fridge is by checking out the discount meat bins at your local grocer/deli. Sometimes they repackage the ends of their charcuterie when they get too small to slice and sell them at a discounted price (hence discounted meat!).

If I go at the right time to the Italian Centre here in Edmonton, I will find a chunk of prosciutto for about $8 - $10. It's a pretty sweet deal. It's uncut, so it doesn't dry out as fast, and instead of being required to eat 9 slices within 3 days, I can just cut the slices myself, and I can cook them into pastas, add them to salads, and even use the slices to wrap random veggies (asparagus) and fruits (pears) for consumption. It lasts up to a couple of weeks in my fridge!

It's pretty classy when I can say "I used prosciutto on this pizza".

My favourite prosciutto dishes (you can figure out the recipes - they are pretty self explanatory):

Prosciutto wrapped pears (add a drizzle of maple syrup and toast in the toaster oven for a quick snack).

Prosciutto infused asparagus (steam asparagus in pan with butter and lemon and the excess prosciutto fat to flavour the butter, add slices/raclettes of fresh parmesan to top).

Prosciutto pasta - simply make your favourite pasta with prosciutto chunks (when fried will taste like bacon bits!)

Duck prosciutto and prosciutto pizza with goat cheese and figs. (Buy frozen dough at the Italian Centre in Edmonton for $4/4 dough balls, defrost, and bake on pizza stone with favourite toppings).