Sweet Corn Infused Ricotta & Summer Bucatini
This recipe was inspired by a Cook’s Illustrated recipe from a few years back. I made their original recipe, because I loved the idea of infusing delicious, height of summer flavor of sweet corn into ricotta, but I found both their ricotta and pasta recipe to be a bit lacking, so have been working to make it my own.
My recipe ended up being a rich, creamy ricotta, with the distinct sweet flavor of summer sweet corn. So good. I’m hoping to make another batch before the summer is over and freeze it, some of the texture is changed but I tend to make whipped ricotta with frozen batches or add it to cooked dishes, and then you would never even know. I used very fresh, just picked that day sweet corn to make this, as sweet corn starts converting its sugars to starch from the moment it’s picked.
I use this ricotta in the following pasta recipe and in my tomato tart, but we also spread it on toast and top it with more sweet corn, or peaches, or tomatoes. We dollop it on scrambled eggs, or on top of a tomato salad. It is really great with just about anything that is in season at the moment.
You can break these recipes apart, making just the homemade ricotta (I made a double batch!) or the pasta or tomato tart with store bought ricotta. I like to go all in on things, making as much from scratch as possible and use up every little bit, but the two recipes would still be very good with store bought ricotta.
Sweet Corn Infused Ricotta
Makes about 2 cups
Ingredients:
6 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
4 ears corn, kernels sliced off but empty cobs retained
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsbp lemon juice
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
Heat milk, cream, corn kernels and cobs, and salt in heavy pot, bring to a simmer. Turn off heat, cover, let sit for 1 hour. Next strain out corn, pouring infused milk and cream through fine mesh strainer, return back to heavy pan. (If you are making the following pasta recipe, retain ½ cup of milk mixture. Toss corn cobs, but retain corn kernels for pasta or another use. Cream infused corn kernels are delicious!)
Line a colander with cheesecloth, dampen cheesecloth, place colander over a large bowl to catch the whey. Return milk to a full rolling boil. Turn off heat, stir in lemon juice and vinegar. Let sit for 1 minutes for curds to form. Gently transfer the ricotta to the colander letting the whey drain. Let drain for about 15 minutes. Retain the whey for the following pasta recipe, or for another use.
Finished ricotta can be refrigerated for about 5 days, or frozen for longer with some impact to texture.
Summer Bucatini
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
Retained whey from above
2 quarts water (or 4 if not using whey)
4 cups milk infused sweet corn kernels (from above) or fresh sweet corn, divided.
½ cup milk/heavy cream mixture (from above) or milk/heavy cream/whatever you have
2oz guanciale, cut into 1/4” pieces
½ onion, diced
2 Fresno chiles, diced
1lb bucatini
¾ cup sweet corn infused ricotta
salt and pepper
cherry tomatoes
basil
Add whey and 2 quarts of water to large pot, bring to a boil.
Blend ½ cup milk mixture and 3 ½ cups of corn on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Using back of ladle or rubber spatula, push corn puree through fine-mesh strainer, set aside
In a large skillet, heat guanciale over medium-high heat. Partially render the fat, about 5 minutes. Add onion, season with salt and pepper, and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until fat has completely rendered from guanciale, about 10 minutes. Add remaining ½ cup of retained corn kernels, heat through. Remove guanciale, onion, and corn from pan, set aside.
Meanwhile, add 2 tablespoons salt and pasta to the pot of whey + water and cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta is flexible but still firm, about 5 minutes. (My pasta took a bit longer to cook than this, but start checking at 5.) Reserve 2 cups pasta water and drain pasta.
Add Fresno’s to pan with remaining fat, saute for a minute or two. Add corn puree, heat over low heat while pasta finishes cooking. Season with salt and pepper.
Transfer pasta and 1½ cups reserved pasta water to skillet and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until pasta is well coated with sauce, about 1 minute. Adjust consistency with pasta water, taste and season again with salt and pepper (mine needed quite a bit of salt at this point to bring out the corn flavor.)
Divide among shallow bowls, top with reserved guanciale + onion, + corn some cherry or currant tomatoes and torn basil, dollop with ricotta.
