the summeriest corn & shrimp pasta

aaaaand we're back!

hello! it’s been a minute!

apologies for my brief hiatus this month. my new puppy chewed on my laptop screen, causing it to need to be sent off for repair (thank GOD for apple care). then, I went out of town for a week, so I only just got my laptop back this week. it was mayhem. but also probably good for me.

I have a lot of recipe to catch you up on, most of which I posted directly in their respective Instagram captions. nonetheless, I’ll send a (free) roundup in a few days so you can have them all in your inbox.

now, lets get on with it: the summeriest corn & shrimp pasta!

this post was made as part of my ‘Cooking My Way Through the Seafood Counter’ series I’ve been doing, this time featuring shrimp. now there are obviously a million ways to prepare shrimp and I am sure I could’ve come up with a more creative and unique way, but I wanted to make something that you’d actually want to cook. plus, what is better than shrimp + pasta? literally nothing.

heavily inspired by the abundance of summer produce, we use corn two ways in this recipe (wait, actually 3 technically). then it is tossed together with some crispy guanciale, cream, shrimp, and chopped chives.

there are a handful of moving parts in this recipe, but I promise it’s very straightforward!

the corn: you’ll need to ears of corn for this recipe, and trust me you’ll make them worth it. with one cob, we’ll just cut the kernels off for sautéing. with the other, we’re going to grate it into a sort of “corn milk,” which will help to build the sauce. THEN, we’ll take the cobs and toss them in the pasta water to infuse the pasta with even more corn flavor. but you can skip that if you want.

the shrimp: really, you can use whatever kind of shrimp you like best. I recommend buying it fresh, not frozen. to make it easier, you can usually buy it pre-peeled and deveined.

the guanciale: I love adding the fatty & crispy guanciale to this pasta dish. however, if you can’t find guanciale (aka the cheek of the pork), you can definitely use pancetta or even bacon in a pinch. if you wanted to make this meatless, you could omit it entirely or use a meatless bacon or even crisp up some shiitake mushrooms.

watch the video of this recipe

the full recipe:

Shrimp Pasta with Corn & Guanciale

ingredients:

• 2 whole ears of corn, husked

• 1/4 cup of guanciale, diced (or pancetta or bacon)

• 1/2 pound of shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 8 shrimp or so)

• 8 ounces pasta of choice

• 2 tbsp butter

• 1 small shallot, finely diced

• 2-4 cloves garlic, finely minced

• 1/4 cup heavy cream

• 1-2 tbsps finely chopped chives, for garnish

• Diamond Crystal kosher salt (see recipe directions)

• fresh cracked black pepper