Email to Cat      

Nita's Corn Salad with Tomatoes and Basil

Source of Recipe

From "The Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook" by Brian Noyes


Recipe Introduction

"We know and love April McGreger from her days spent cooking up the sumptuous jams and preserves we kept on our bakery's retail shelves, until she surprised us all in a short email saying that she's hanging up her Farmer's Daughter company apron for good. She has since shared an adapted recipe for her mom's corn salad with Garden & Gun magazine, and every time I made it for our catering events and posted the results on Instagram, I got swooning comments from friends who had then made it themselves. I chatted with April about her mom Nita's original and true version, and she laughed when telling me that Nita never measured ingredients, didn't write down a vital ingredient (such as the roasted red pepper juice from a jar), and avoided herbs in her dish until influenced by her daughter. 'She makes this all year long,' April says, 'definitely using frozen sweet corn or even (gasp!) canned shoepeg corn. It's a working woman's recipe, so shortcuts are the norm!' This is one of my favorite summer dishes in the book."

List of Ingredients

◦ 6 ears of corn, shucked, or 4 � cups frozen corn, thawed and drained (see Note)
◦ 1 cup multicolored cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
◦ � cup diced red onion
◦ 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
◦ � cup chopped roasted red bell peppers from a jar, plus 3 tablespoons liquid
◦ � teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
◦ � teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
◦ 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
◦ 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
◦ � cup fresh basil leaves, rolled up and thinly sliced


Recipe

If using fresh corn, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Have a large bowl of ice water ready.

If you're using fresh corn, add the ears to the pot and boil for 2 minutes, then immediately transfer the corn to the ice-water bath to cool for 30 seconds. Drain on a cooling rack over newspaper or paper towels until cool enough to handle. (If you're using thawed and drained frozen corn, skip this step and simply add the corn to the large bowl in step 3.)

Scrape the kernels from the corn cobs into a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, roasted red peppers and their liquid, salt, and pepper and mix well. Pour in the oil and toss until everything is evenly coated. Spoon in the mayonnaise, mixing to evenly coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Taste and season with more salt and pepper, as needed. Stir in the basil just before serving.

Serves 6 to 8






❧ Note: While April and her mom have given their blessing to use frozen corn if you need to, I sure would urge you to make this with fresh corn in the height of summer.