Originating in Mexico, papaya is now grown pretty much wherever the climate allows. I started to like it when I was in Thailand, where I was fortunate to enjoy the sweetest, most beautifully ripe fruit. It’s got quite a unique flavour. Another memorable fruit in South East Asia was mango. Mango and sweet rice is a Thai speciality and I’ll post the recipe for it in the coming weeks.

Like tomatoes, Papaya has a touch of the super-food thing going on, as it contains lycopene, which is thought to help prevent cancer cells from forming. So you don’t have to feel so bad when you’re wolfing down the parma ham and mozzarella in this fancy starter.

There are loads of white wines that would work very well with this salad, provided they’re food friendly (of good quality) and not too prominent or robust in terms of flavour and sweetness. The highly versatile Mirabello Pinot Grigio, or for a little step-up, the delicate and floral Tabali Viognier are great matches.

A light red may strike the right cord for some. If so, I think a young Beaujolais might just be the ticket. OK, so we need to re-shoot the bottle on this one, but the Domaine de la Roche looks perfect in real life and tastes even better when you get stuck in.

Video courtesy of Look and Taste.