Sweet corn, red onion, bell pepper and basil turn one of summer’s simplest vegetables into the side dish I make year after year.
There are people who wait all year for the first ears of summer corn so they can boil them, butter them and eat them straight from the cob. I am not one of those people.
As much as I love sweet corn—and as much of it as I plan to eat between now and the first frost—I have never found corn on the cob particularly appealing. It is messy, inelegant and astonishingly determined to become lodged between one’s teeth. At the table, it asks diners to abandon both dignity and dental restraint.
Fortunately, Ina Garten came up with a better idea.
Her Confetti Corn takes everything wonderful about fresh summer corn and removes the part that requires eating it like a beaver. The kernels are cut from the cob and quickly sautéed with red onion, orange bell pepper, butter and fresh herbs. The finished dish is sweet, savory, colorful and generous—the sort of side dish that looks wonderful on a platter but takes only about 30 minutes to make. Quite simply, it is the only way I serve corn.
Freshly picked corn is at its sweetest because the natural sugars in the kernels gradually begin turning to starch after harvest. Buy corn that looks plump and fresh, keep it cold and resist shucking it until you are ready to cook it.
The Secret Is Not Overcooking the Corn
Ina’s method gives the onion and bell pepper a head start in the pan. Only after they have softened do the butter and fresh corn join them. The corn cooks for just five to seven minutes—long enough to lose its raw starchiness but not so long that it surrenders its sweetness or its slight crunch. Fresh basil, chives or parsley goes in at the end. This is not a recipe improved by fussing. Its great virtue is that it tastes unmistakably of summer corn, only better dressed.
Ina’s original recipe calls for an orange bell pepper, although I have also made it with red pepper. Either provides color,
sweetness and a gentle crunch. The red onion brings just enough sharpness to balance the corn, while the butter takes care of everything butter has always done exceptionally well.
Serve Confetti Corn with grilled chicken, steak, shrimp or fish. Put it on a summer buffet. Or eat the leftovers directly from the refrigerator while pretending you are merely rearranging things. (See recipes for Swordfish and Shrimp right after the recipe for Confetti corn below)
Just don’t wait too long. Summer corn has a season, and unlike certain houseguests, it knows when to leave.
Ina Garten’s colorful Confetti Corn deserves a starring role at the summer table.Ina Garten's Confetti Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Here are two wonderful dishes to serve along with Confetti Corn…
Ina Garten’s Ode to Marcella Hazan: Sicillian Grilled Swordfish and Ina’s recipe for Confetti Corn
Sauteed Shrimp with Coconut Oil, Ginger and Coriander with Confetti Corn adapted from Ina Garten
