Butter-Poached Corn with Squid-Ink Pasta | Everyday Dorie

Three weeks into the lockdown, we can cook anything we want for the coronavirus edition at Cook-the-Book-Friday. I choose the butter-poached corn with egg noodles since I have frozen corn, pasta, lemon juice and fresh chives, but no cream of any kind.

No reason why I can’t do better than dry pasta. What about making my own egg noodles with flour and eggs? Remember a few years back, I made a squid-ink pasta. It didn’t turn out perfectly due to the lack of planning. Now I have time on my side and let’s have a do-over – only years later.

In part, Dorie’s tip from the Riches (Evan and Sarah Rich, chefs of Rich Table in San Francisco) gets me thinking. She says (page 218): Add an extra egg yolk to the pasta dough.

That’s exactly what I did, starting with one egg (and the extra egg yolk) and 100 grams of all-purpose flour. Then I add water, little by little, as well as 1/8 teaspoon of cuttlefish ink. I mix together the ingredients and work the dough until it comes together in a soft ball, without being sticky. Something to keep in mind: if the dough is too dry, add some water. If it is too soft, add some flour. Aim for a smooth and elastic dough that rolls out effortlessly through the machine. I crank the dough from setting 0 through 6 in the machine. Then cut into fettuccine-sized noodles.

Poaching the corn is a breeze. Melt butter (Dorie uses 4 tablespoons or half a stick of butter for each cup of corn kernels, I prefer less) with tablespoonfuls of water and stir in the corn. Let it simmer for a few minutes until the corn is crisp tender. Set aside. The butter flavored corn tastes incredible.

The butter-poached corn with egg noodles come out better than I’ve expected. The squid-ink pasta has great texture and color. Fresh pasta never disappoints. A splash of lemon for some acid here and a sprinkle of fresh chive there. To replace créme fraîche or sour cream which I don’t have, I use some crumbled feta. Voila, we give this pasta dish two-thumbs up. More if we can get more warm bodies in the proximity!