Creamy Corn Pasta with Pancetta
A silky corn sauce, with little explosions of corn and pancetta!
Creamy corn pasta with pancetta
Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: 3/5 | Yield: 1 big bowl of pasta
I developed this recipe after having one of the best bowls of pasta in my life, at Union Square Cafe in New York. I couldn’t stop thinking about it—the tiny explosions of corn kernels, the silky, buttery sauce, the clumps of salty pancetta! It took me SO many tries to get the texture just right —I really wanted to make the sauce from the corn itself, without any added cream or other emulsifiers—but all that trial and error resulted in this really delicious, hearty pasta recipe that I’m very proud of! You’ll need an immersion blender for this (or you could use a small, regular blender, but clean-up will be much more involved), and I recommend using pancetta if you can find it—if not, chopped bacon will do well as a replacement.
Ingredients/Tools:
Pasta (I recommend gemelli, rotini, or cavatappi—something with creases to hold the sauce!)
1 ear of sweet corn
1/4 white onion
1 garlic clove
Pancetta (about 1/4 cup)
Butter
Basil
Parmesan
Immersion blender
Method:
Set a pot of water to boil, and cook the pasta
Slice the corn kernels off the cob. Dice the onion and chop the garlic (no need to chop it too finely, as you’ll be blending it all later).
Cook the pancetta in a pan. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside when done, keeping the fat in the pan.
Add some butter to the same pan, and the onion and garlic. Sauté until the onion starts to get translucent.
Add a third of your corn kernels to the pan, along with some salt and pepper.
Add some water to the pan, just enough to cover the corn and onions (it’ll be about a quarter-a half cup). Cover the pan, and let the corn simmer and steam until almost all the water is cooked off.
Transfer the corn and onions into an immersion blender. Add half a cup of pasta water, and blend. Then continue adding pasta water, alternating adding and blending, until the mixture is totally smooth (you’ll add about 1/4 cup more water).
Put some butter back in the pan, and add the 2/3 remaining corn kernels. Add salt and pepper, and sauté until the corn has very lightly browned.
Add the blended corn mixture into the same pan, and cook everything down together on low heat.
Add the pasta to the pan once cooked, along with some of the pasta water and some parmesan.
Add the basil, pancetta, a pat of butter, and more parmesan and/or pasta water as needed, to achieve the silky texture you’re looking for!