I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one really great thing about living in China is the accessibility to all sorts of fresh produce. I’m within walking distance to a wet market with probably 20 stands of nothing but fresh fruits and vegetables. A lot like the farmers markets that take place on the weekends in the summer in the US – except that it’s every day all year long. Even better are the prices. And the freebies – the girl at my favorite stand won’t let me leave without giving me something (usually green onions and cilantro) for free. 🙂 The corn has been especially delicious lately and it’s been made a lot of appearances at our dinner table.
This Summer Sweet Corn Fettuccine seemed like a perfect use for the corn cobs I came home with a few weekends ago. And I really did love it. I did make a few adjustments to the recipe. I initially was going to cut everything in half, but then the sauce didn’t seem like it would be enough for the pasta (even though I was using less pasta) so I added additional milk. So in the end I used less corn than the original recipe, but it honestly seemed like just enough, any more might have been *too* much. As always though, I’ll list the recipe as I made it and link to the original, so it’s your call!
Summer Sweet Corn Fettuccine
Ingredients
8 oz Fettuccine
3 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch
3 ears of corn on the cob, shucked
1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup half-and-half or whole milk
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme or 1/2 tsp dry thyme
A few dashes of hot sauce
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
5-6 sweet basil leaves, cut in a chiffonade
Directions
Cook pasta according to box, then drain and set aside.
While the pasta is cooking, steady the corn in a large mixing bowl and cut the corn off of the cob. Switching to a butter knife, carefully scrape anything that is left on the cob, including the juices, into the bowl. Set aside.
In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until rendered and crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease. Set bacon aside. Add 2/3 of the corn and juices, red onion, and red bell pepper to pan. Season with salt and pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
While the vegetables are cooking, add the remaining corn, milk/half-and-half, thyme, and hot sauce to a food processor. Process until mostly smooth, set aside. Add the chicken broth to pan with the vegetables, reduce heat to low, and simmer for a few minutes to reduce. Pour in the corn/milk mixture and cook for another 4 minutes. Add half of the Parmesan cheese and stir until melted. Taste and season with additional hot sauce and s&p as needed.
Add the pasta to the sauce along with half of the reserved bacon, stir to coat. Top with remaining Parmesan cheese, bacon, and basil. Serve hot and enjoy!
Adapted from Cassie Craves and Rachael Ray, via A Taste of Home Cooking
Mmm I do love this recipe too and your photos is one of the best I've seen for this recipe! I'm jealous of your ability to get such fresh (and cheap) produce every day. What a dream!
This looks fantastic! I was looking for another meal to add to my menu for this week and this is perfect–can’t wait to try it!
Looks delicious!! I'm glad you liked it. 🙂 I'm honestly shocked at the fresh produce you can get in China. Don't know why I thought it would be harder to come by.
Well, there are certain things that are harder to find, or that go by a different name so using my iphone translator can be no help at all. 🙂 But really, the Chinese love their vegetables and demand that they're fresh!
This is one of my most favorite pasta recipes, your version looks fantastic.
mmmm looks yummy!
I rarely put corn in pasta dishes but it sounds great especially with a creamy sauce.
Oddly enough most of my life a was a very, very firm believer in “corn is not an ingredient.” Recently something changed and now I realize how very wrong I was. The sweet, crunchy pops are awesome with the creamy sauce!
This looks amazing and fairly easy to make, so I'm really excited you posted this. I was just telling my husband that I'm so excited about your blog because if you can find ingredients to make these things in Suzhou, then I should be able to find them in Shanghai 🙂
I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I can find here. If anything, it will actually be even easier in Shanghai since there is an even bigger expat community!