Mushroom Sweet Corn Pasta
This delicious mushroom sweet corn pasta features earthy mushrooms, charred corn, and a light cream sauce. It is a quick, easy and satisfying meatless pasta dish you can throw together in half an hour.
Sweet corn is a versatile ingredient as it can be cooked in multiple ways—boiled, grilled, roasted, or sautéed, and added to various dishes, both savory and sweet. Have you tried my grilled corn recipe and sweet corn pudding?
Today’s recipe is inspired by the pasta with corn I had at Marea restaurant in New York. I was intrigued by the combination of sweet corn, mushrooms, and pasta – so many flavors and textures in one bite. It was among the most brilliant pasta dishes I have ever tried.
I’m also happy with my homemade version of the dish which is flavorful and light though it isn’t exactly the same as the one I had at Marea. It is definitely one of my favorite sweet corn recipes to cook in summer.
Ingredients
This mushroom corn pasta tastes quite sophisticated in my opinion though it requires only a few easy-to-find ingredients. They are pasta, sweet corn, mushrooms, butter, cream, parmesan cheese, garlic and fresh thyme. No meat, but it is pretty filling.
How tasty this dish will turn out depends on quality of the sweet corn, which should have even and plump kernels. We want sweet and juicy corn kernels in our pasta right :). For mushrooms, I use brown mushrooms, but feel free to experiment with other flavorful mushrooms like chanterelles.
For pasta, I use orecchiette which have a round, concave shape. They are perfect for this dish because you can scoop up orecchiette, corn kernels and mushroom slices with your fork easily when eating. If you cannot find this pasta at your local grocery stores, you can buy it on Amazon or go with other short pasta shapes you have.
If you want to make this pasta recipe vegetarian, please use vegetarian parmesan cheese.
Cooking Notes
One reason why I love this pasta (and this shrimp scallop pasta) is I can put it together in 30 minutes. The dish comes together quickly, so prepare all ingredients before turning on your stove.
To ensure the dish comes out delicious, it’s important to brown the mushrooms and corn kernels to concentrate their flavors. It’s best to use a stainless steel (or cast-iron) skillet for this task. I use my All-Clad stainless steel sauté pan which works wonderfully.
Once the corn kernels and mushrooms have developed nice colors, all you need to do is to add the remaining ingredients to the pan and toss them together.
I don’t use a lot of butter or cream in the dish, just enough to add some richness and smoothness. I often feel too much heavy cream and cheese easily overpowers natural flavors of other ingredients. Please feel free to add more or less to your liking :).
This recipe first appeared on Delightful Plate in February 2019. It has been updated with more information and photos.
⭐️ I’d love to hear what you think about the dish, so please feel free to leave a comment and a rating if you have tried it. New recipes are added every week so let’s connect on Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates. You can find my collection of Vietnamese recipes here.
Mushroom Sweet Corn Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 ears of corn
- 12 oz brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme (about 3-4 sprigs of thyme)
- chopped parsley (to serve)
- 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (plus more, to serve)
- salt
- 8 oz pasta, preferably orecchiette
- olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- pepper
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Prepare all ingredients. Separate corn kernels from the cobs and discard the cobs. Slice mushrooms, chop thyme, parsley and garlic, and grate parmesan cheese.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a generous amount of salt to the water. Add pasta and cook to near al dente (about a minute less than package instructions). Reserve about 2/3 cup of pasta cooking liquid.
- Place a sauté pan over medium heat. Add some olive oil to coat the pan, then add corn kernels. Sauté for 2-3 minutes until they start to develop colors. Some of the corn kernels will start to pop and jump around at that point. Transfer to a plate.
- Add more oil if the pan looks too dry. Increase the heat to medium or medium-high and add mushroom slices. Sauté until they are brown and lose a lot of volume. It can take 5-6 minutes, depending on your stove. Add butter, garlic and thyme, and season with some salt and pepper. Sauté for another 30 seconds until fragrant and butter is melted.
- Add reserved pasta cooking liquid and heavy cream to the pan. Stir and scrape the pan. Continue to add pasta, corn kernels and parmesan cheese. Toss everything together and cook until flavors are combined. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to your liking. If the pasta is too dry, you may add a splash of pasta water or heavy cream.
- Transfer to serving plates and garnish with more parmesan and chopped parsley. Serve immediately.
