Corn on the cob or sweetcorn?
In Italy, we are more used to consuming sweetcorn.

Furthermore, we are used to canned corn and much less used to whole sweetcorn.

They remind me of the end of August when we would return from vacation and start shuttling back and forth between the city where I lived and the countryside where my maternal grandmother was born and raised.

In the boxes with which we would return home were figs, corncobs, the first bunches of grapes, and, of course, still all the summer produce.

Corn on the cob: how to cook it

It is not complicated at all!

You can blanch the cobs whole but stripped of their leaves, if any, for about 20 minutes and then pass them for a few minutes in the oven, frying pan, or over the barbecue embers.

However you want to cook them, always boil them first for at least 10 to 15 minutes. This will significantly reduce the otherwise long cooking time.

If there is no barbecue in sight, after I have cooked the cobs in water, I toss them in a pan lightly greased with a bit of oil and, turning often, toast them over medium-high heat.

Corn on the cob is a great side dish that can also be a main dish. You can cut it into large rounds and bake it in the oven with potatoes (but cook the cob in boiling water first, anyway).

Yogurt sauce: an alternative to the buttery tomato sauce

Since corn on the cob and butter go very well together, I usually accompany corn on the cob with a buttery, basil-scented tomato sauce. For a change or as an alternative, I also leave you with a version of the sauce with Greek yogurt. You will only have to mix the ingredients:

200 g white Greek yogurt
strained juice of half a lemon
a pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon sweet mustard

Corn on the cob, one of the colors of late summer

There was a time when cob was grown but not eaten in the countryside, at least in my Romagna region. It served as birdseed for chickens, ended up in pigs’ mash, and was sold to industry.

Its use in the home kitchen, at least where I grew up, is late and dates back to the 1960s-1970s. The first time I ate a corn out of a metal box, I discovered its authentic flavor, sweet but not metallic. And that the kernel also has a different texture than in the box; it is firmer.

The corn has become a late summer fixture. It’s like a last ray of summer sunshine that blends into autumn’s gold and orange colors. I also find it an excellent recipe for the first brunches of autumn, when the temperature is still mild, and we can be outside enjoying good food and great company.

Life is good, remember that.
Buona cucina, Monica

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