Confetti Corn

My entire family came over for dinner on Saturday night because my grandmas and my cousin hadn't seen the new house yet. I had a bunch of corn in the freezer from my recent purchase of 48 ears (ugh...I'm so done with cooking corn!), and I thought there were a couple different Barefoot Contessa corn recipes from which to choose. The first cookbook of hers I grabbed off my shelf--"Back to Basics"--had a corn dish in it that sounded fantastic and easy. That's one of the things I love most about Ina's recipes, none of them require a lot of ingredients, but the ingredients they do use need to be high quality and fresh so you can really appreciate the taste. I'd much rather prepare dishes that way than ones that require 30 different ingredients.

Barefoot Contessa's Confetti Corn
2008, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, All Rights Reserved

2 tablespoons good olive oil
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 small orange bell pepper, 1/2-inch diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Kernels cut from 5 ears yellow or white corn (4 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons julienned fresh basil, minced fresh chives, and/or minced fresh parsley leaves

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes, until the onion is soft. Stir in the bell pepper and saute for 2 more minutes.

Add the butter to the pan and allow it to melt. Over medium heat, add the corn, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes, until the corn just loses its starchiness. Season to taste, gently stir in the basil or other green herbs, and serve hot.

*****

I don't know if I've gone on before about olive oil, but it really does make a huge difference to use good quality olive oil instead of whatever is cheapest at the store. I used to be one of the "buy whatever is cheapest" shoppers until I was at Sur La Table one day and was convinced by the sales lady to try an olive oil they had on special. Oh man, did it ever make a difference!! You could taste how much better it was, and the smell is so flowery and yummy and awesome. If you don't already, try buying a really good olive oil sometime and put a little in a dish and put some of the cheap stuff in a dish. Dip some bread in each (don't mix them, you want to taste each on its own) and see what I mean.

Back to my review, this was super easy to make, and it was a huge hit!! Everyone really liked it. My mom was still talking about it yesterday when I called her for something. I think I cooked the onions a bit too long because they were starting to take on that gray tinge that cooked red onions can have, but they were still good. This was a great summer dish, and so flavorful and pretty! Now I'm kind of glad I have all that corn in my freezer!