Hokumpoke Creamy Corn Pasta with Peas and Basil

This past week I made my way over to Hancock, New Hampshire to a start-up CSA called Hokumpoke Farm. Isn't that an awesome name ? First of all, it's just plain fun to say and second it is not a name to be forgotten, so it's easy to toot it to my friends. Anyway, I was drawn there because Colleen had the brilliant idea to market the CSA to more folks by offering a weekly opt in/opt out share program. Now, SB and I have our own vegetable garden, but we also are pretty basic in what we grow. My herbs are sketchy this year, we never grow leeks or kohlrabi or fennel or heirloom tomatoes or cabbage ... and guess what? Hokumpoke Farm does! You can guess what weeks I'll be trotting over to pick up a bag of produce!

This week there were baby leeks, peas, and parsley included in my bag of goodies. I accessed a NYT  Melissa Clark recipe and made it my own with some subbing in and adding this and that. The recipe serves four hungry folk as a vegetarian main dish. We opted to have it as a side with a green salad (also from the farm and our own gardens) and Cheddar cheeseburgers from the grill. Great summertime fare! Here's the recipe the way I made it.

Note: Fresh corn is still not local to our Monadnock region, but it's starting to come up from the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts and the lower Hudson Valley region of New York. I got cold fresh corn at the market that looked decent and I used it in this warm salad.

Hokumpoke Creamy Corn Pasta with Peas and Basil

Ingredients:

12 oz. campanelle pasta (or any pasta that will catch and hold onto the corn kernels, peas, and sauce)

2 tbsp olive oil

8 baby leeks, washed and sliced to thin coins whites and some of the greens

2 scallions, washed and sliced into coins, greens set aside for garnish

3 ears of sweet 'butter and sugar' corn, shucked and kernels cut from the cobs

1/4 c. fresh parsley leaves

1 c. fresh peas

3 tbsp. butter

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Kosher salt, to taste

1/2 c. grated parmesan

1 big handful basil leaves, torn for garnish

a generous squeeze of lemon juice

Making the Warm Salad:

1. Generously salt a kettle of water and bring it to a boil. Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain (reserve about 1 c. of the pasta water) and set the pasta aside in the deep pasta pot.

2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the leeks and scallion white coins and all but 1 cup of the corn kernels. Cook over medium heat until the corn begins to soften nicely.

3. Place this warm mixture in a blender or food processor bowl and add the parsley. Whiz to make a thick smooth sauce. Add some of the reserved pasta water, the black pepper and some Kosher salt Continue whizzing to make a pourable smooth sauce.

4. In the same fry pan that you used for the corn mixture, melt the butter and add the reserved corn and peas and the red pepper flakes. Soften them over medium heat and then pour the blender sauce into the pan and combine. Continue simmering for a couple minutes to blend all the flavors.

5. Turn the sauce into the pasta pot with the warm pasta and toss to combine. Add the additional reserved pasta water if you like a looser sauce. Bring the heat up a bit under the pot and add the Parmesan cheese. Heat the salad, just enough to soften the Parmesan cheese and heat the pasta back up. Taste and add Kosher salt if you feel it needs it.

6. Turn the creamy pasta salad into a pretty bowl and garnish with scallion greens, additional red pepper flakes, torn basil leaves. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice over top everything and drizzle a bit of olive oil also. Serve while lukewarm. Enjoy !