A deceivingly creamy pasta dish without a touch of heavy cream!
As summer comes to a close here in Texas, I was looking for a warm bowl of pasta that featured some of those final summery flavors of sweet corn and bright, garden-fresh herbs. I stumbled upon this NYT recipe and adapted it to our pantry and our tastes. It’s now become a favorite, easy week night dinner recipe of ours and I can’t wait to share it with you. I personally think it tastes best with fresh, delicate egg pasta like fettuccine or linguine, but you could certainly use dry pasta if that’s what you have on-hand.
Cheers to this lovely cooler weather and see you and your fresh, sweet corn next year, summer.
FETTUCCINE WITH FRESH CORN & HERBS
- Inspired by New York Times
- Yields: 2-3 servings
Ingredients:
- 12 oz. fresh egg pasta such as fettuccine or linguine
- 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large ears of corn, shucked and cleaned
- 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup low-sodium vegetable(or chicken) stock
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh chives, minced
- 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
- Take your shucked, clean ears of corn, and using a very sharp knife, cut off all the kernels into a separate bowl. Reserve 1/3 cup of the kernels and set them aside.
- Bring a large pot of water up to a rolling boil. To a large skillet, add your olive oil and heat over medium high heat. Stir in the minced garlic and corn kernels (except for the reserved 1/3 cup of kernels) and 1/4 cup of stock. Simmer for 3-5 minutes until the corn is tender and heated through. Sprinkle in some sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste. Pour this mixture into a blender (or food processor). Puree until smooth.
- At this point, you can add in your fresh pasta to the pot of boiling water and cook according to the package instructions. *Fresh pasta cooks quickly so this should be a quick step! Reserve 1 cup of hot pasta water, if needed, for later.
- To the same skillet the garlic & corn was in, melt your butter until bubbly. Add in the reserved 1/3 cup corn kernels and cook for 1-2 minutes until the corn is tender but still remains a bit crisp. Pour in the purred corn mixture from the blender, stir and cook everything together for 1 minute. Then add in the cooked, drained pasta directly to the sauce as well as the grated Parmesan cheese, basil, chives and red pepper flakes. Toss everything together for 1 minute over the heat. If the sauce is too thick for your liking, add in a 1/4 cup hot pasta water at a time until it reaches your desired consistency. Serve immediately.
