Creamy corn pasta
Sweet corn cooked in butter with shallot, then partly mashed so its own juices make a creamy sauce with parmesan and basil, summer in a bowl any time of year.
- 30 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $2.16 a serving
- 530 calories
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 shallot, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 12 oz gluten-free pasta, short shape; regular pasta works too
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 cups frozen corn
- ½ cup grated parmesan
- ½ lemon, juiced
- ⅓ cup fresh basil, torn
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt, plus ½ tsp
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
Each serving has about 530 calories, 13 g protein, 92 g carbs and 14 g fat, and costs about $2.16 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No frozen corn? Canned corn works.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Fill a large pot with water, add the salt, cover and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
While it heats, the shallot and garlic.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Cook the pasta until , tasting 2 minutes before the package time.
Al dente. Al dente is Italian for “to the tooth”: pasta cooked until tender but with a slight firm bite in the center. It holds up in sauce and keeps softening a little after you drain it.
How you’ll know: Bite a piece a minute before the package time: tender, with a slight firm bite in the middle and no crunch.
High heatTimer: 10 min
Dolly’s tip: Gluten-free pasta softens fast, so taste early and pull it with a little bite left.Meanwhile, the butter in a large over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook 2 minutes, then add the garlic, corn and ½ teaspoon salt and cook 6 to 8 minutes, stirring, until sweet and in spots.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 8 min
Scoop out 1½ cups of , then the pasta.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Mash about half the corn right in the pan with a potato masher or fork, and stir in ½ cup .
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Dolly’s tip: Mashing releases the corn’s sweet, starchy juice. That’s what makes the sauce creamy.Add the pasta and parmesan and over low heat, adding until creamy.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Low heat
Squeeze in the lemon juice and serve with basil on top, and pepper flakes if you like.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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