Mushroom Ravioli in Corn Sauce

A year ago, the CC ate a corn agnolotti in a corn reduction at a fancy restaurant at the height of summer. The dish simply blew him away. The sauce had a silky-smooth mouth feel, and the essence of the concentrated corn flavor sang the song of summer.

Clearly, this was a recipe worth emulating!

So this summer, the CC finally got his hands on some excellent just-picked-that-morning corn (we've had a late summer here!) Naturally, reproducing the recipe was on the cards.

Well, the CC wasn't going to attempt the corn agnolotti. One may experiment but one should have a full understanding of one's own limitations. So the mushroom ravioli came from Raffetto's.

Oh, and how did the reproduction go?

Well, gentle reader, if it had gone badly, the CC would hardly have blogged about it, would he?

It's like the rules of a slasher movie where the heroine must be in danger, or a WWII movie with fighter planes going down in flames. There is just no escaping the conventions of the genre.

Corn Sauce

Ingredients

8 ears corn
1 large red onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (chopped coarsely)
8 sprigs thyme

corn flour
sea salt
black pepper (lots!)

basil

Recipe

The recipe has multiple stages but they are pretty easy.

Shuck the corn kernels but reserve the corn stalks. Split them into two or three pieces each.

Fry the onions and garlic at medium low heat. When they are sufficiently limp but not colored, add the corn stalks and fry. Add 2/3-rds of the corn kernels, salt, lots and lots of black pepper, the thyme. Add about 6 cups of water.

Bring to a boil. Simmer at low heat for 25-30 minutes. Fish out the thyme (it's easier if you tie the thyme in a bundle using kitchen twine.)

Blend the mixture. Pass through a fine sieve (this is the hardest part but it's totally necessary to get that silky mouth feel.)

Bring the mixture to a low boil. Add the rest of the corn kernels. Reduce for about 10 minutes. Towards the end, whisk in some corn flour to get a smooth unctuous sauce.

Toss in the basil right before serving.