Full Recipe
Author
Sasha Marx | 2016-10-11
Description
For this recipe we wanted to use sweet corn as both a purée for a pasta sauce and as a flavoring agent for a ricotta that would be later folded into that sauce. Corn kernels contain naturally occurring cornstarch, which thickens into a pasta-coating sauce if heated above 150 degrees F/65 degrees C. At the same time, as Harold McGee notes, “heating also intensifies the characteristic aroma of corn, which is largely due to dimethyl sulfide, [which is] also prominent in the aroma of cooked milk.” Put another way: corn ricotta doesn't just taste more like corn, it also tastes more like milk. And that's a delicious win-win.
