Into my email inbox last week landed a headline touting grilled sweet corn dip. We’ve been feasting on sweet summer corn in all sorts of ways this summer, so this Saveur recipe totally captured my attention. I hopped down to our neighborhood truck market to pick up several ears of sweet corn to go with the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses I had already on hand.
I tinkered with this recipe quite a bit, primarily by not grilling the corn as instructed. I find grilled corn to be unpleasantly chewy, and I wanted just the pure sweetness of summer corn to come through. I reduced the recipe by two thirds, though you could certainly double or triple the recipe below for a big backyard party.
Corn chips make a sort of meta accompaniment to this corn dip.
creamy baked sweet corn dip
serves 4
2 ears of corn, shucked
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cups ricotta
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Pimenton (smoked paprika) or sweet paprika
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Snipped chives (for garnish)
Preheat oven to 325°. Spray a small baking dish with cooking spray. Into a large bowl, grate one ear of corn on a box grater, being sure to extract all the juice. Cut the kernels off the remaining ear of corn into the bowl. Add the cream, ricotta, flour, thyme and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Stir to combine well. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish. Top with grated Parmesan, dot with butter and sprinkle liberally with pimenton or paprika. Place the dish on a foil-lined baking dish and bake until the mixture is bubbly and the Parmesan is browned, about 1 hour. Serve with corn tortilla chips.
