Fresh Corn Polenta with Blistered Tomatoes
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Fresh corn polenta: a love story.
I discovered you this time last year. I was out to eat. You were in my bowl, melting beneath red wine braised short ribs. You were the very best polenta I had ever tasted, your sweet corn flavor discernible even through the brothy meat smothering you.
How could this be, I wondered? I chalked it up to lots of butter and cheese and the sort of restaurant trickery that just can’t be duplicated at home. And so I forgot about you. For a whole year. Tragic! Fresh corn polenta: I’m so happy you’re back in my life. And in my home no less, this time for good.
This is the sort of recipe I want to tell everyone about. I want to call all of my friends and family. I want to spark up conversation with people in checkout lines, knock on my neighbors’ doors, stop strangers in the street. It is so good and much to my surprise calls for no sort of restaurant magic — just a box grater, a little butter, and a sauté pan.
It’s the kind of thing I could eat every night for dinner, and this week I basically have. I love it with sautéed greens or with a poached egg or just on its own with some cracked pepper and parmesan cheese. Before the season ends, I hope to try it with some sautéed mushrooms, too, which is how they serve it at La Toque, the source of this wonderful recipe.
You’ll discover it takes no time to whip up, just a little elbow grease during preparations — grating the ears of corn can be tiring. With that in mind, this is not a dish to make for company. It is the perfect dinner-for-1 or-2. It is simple and delicious. It is restaurant worthy certainly, but comfort food at its core. And I hope it will leave you wondering, as it has left me, where have you been all my life?
Fresh Corn Polenta, Step by Step
First gather your corn.
You’ll need two ears for this recipe, but scale it up as needed, keeping in mind grating corn on a box grater is a bit of an arm workout.
Grate the corn into a large bowl.
Melt two teaspoons of butter in a small skillet over medium heat.
Add the corn, season with salt…
… and cook for 3 minutes.
For the blistered tomatoes: place a pint of cherry tomatoes in a small skillet.
Toss with olive oil, salt, and garlic, and broil for 15 minutes.
Add fresh basil out of the oven.
Spoon the jammy tomatoes over the fresh corn polenta.
Finish with fresh parmesan and pepper to taste, if you wish.
Also delicious with a poached egg on top.
PrintFresh Corn Polenta with Blistered Tomatoes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: Serves 1
Description
Original recipe hails from La Toque, where they serve it with sautéed chanterelles. Yum.
This is also delicious topped with a poached egg or aside sautéed greens.
Ingredients
For the polenta:
- 2 ears corn
- 2 teaspoons butter
- kosher salt or flaky sea salt
For the blistered tomatoes:
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- kosher salt or flaky sea salt
- a handful of fresh basil
For finishing:
- grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- If you’re making the blistered tomatoes, prep them first. Heat the broiler to high.
- Place the tomatoes, olive oil, and garlic in a small skillet or oven-safe dish. Season with a pinch of salt, then toss to coat. Transfer pan to the broiler and broil for 10 to 15 minutes, checking every five minutes — if the tomatoes are blistering within 5 minutes, lower the rack. Ultimately the tomatoes should be both blistered and jammy.
- Remove pan from the broiler, and stir in the handful of basil.
- Meanwhile, clean the corn, removing all husks and threads. Working over a large bowl, grate the kernels off of the cob on the coarse side of a box grater. You will have a very wet coarse pulpy mixture.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the grated corn and season with a good pinch of salt. Simmer over low heat, stirring to prevent browning, for about 3 minutes. The mixture is ready when it just begins to thicken and set.
- Spoon the polenta into a serving bowl. Top with the jammy, blistered tomatoes. Top with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano and pepper to taste if you wish.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
134 Comments on “Fresh Corn Polenta with Blistered Tomatoes”
This looks delicious, and from the comments of others, it obviously is! Has anyone tried to simply scrape the kernels off the cobs and then pulse them in a food processor? Seems like it would be faster than grating them.
That is exactly the question I had. Going to give it a go this week. I’ll report back.
I have and it works great!
I have not but others have… go for it!
Wow! My husband said “this is f***ing special “ – it was so delicious 😋 He generally dislikes polenta – because it doesn’t taste like anything. This dish was phenomenal!
Thank you 🙏
Yay! So great to hear 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks for writing.
This recipe looks great! Thank you!
Simple and absolutely amazing! Kids didn’t like it but if something is this good, I’m happy to eat this alllll by myself
🤣🤣🤣🤣 Great to hear Hannah!
I just got loads of sweet corn from our local farm stand and knew that I had to try this. I couldn’t believe how incredibly simple the preparation was for such a big impact on the plate. I subbed plant-based butter to make it vegan and served it with some balsamic tofu… it was the perfect summer meal!
Yum! Sounds fantastic. I would love to know more about your balsamic tofu if you care to share 🙂
It looks like I misspoke- it was blackened tofu! I am in no way affiliated with this blog, but I really love this recipe: https://www.mydarlingvegan.com/tofu-steaks/
Thank you for sending! It looks delicious, and I’ve now added extra-firm not-water-packed tofu to my grocery list 🙂 Looking forward to trying it!
Made this tonight! Absolutely delicious. I added shrimp that I quickly sautéed in olive oil, garlic and a few red pepper flakes. Tossed them on top to add protein. Perfect summer dinner.
Yum! That sounds perfect, Joanne 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks so much for writing.
Easy and delicious recipe. I used my air fryer on broil setting to avoid using the oven since it’s warm in the summer! Will definitely make again!
Smart! Such a great tip. Thank you for writing and sharing this 🙂
OH MY GOD –
I literally just exclaimed as I took my first bite! Salty, sweed, aicdy-from the tomatoes, bite from the parm… This is a 10/5 meal! I had small ears of corn so it took 3 of them to get a reasonable serving, and I’d double the corn – but not tomatoes – next time.
THANK YOU!
Great to hear, Sally!! Love when you love a recipe 🙂 🙂 🙂
LOL I read this three times and didn’t catch that there is no polenta in this. So now I have a cup of polenta and separately the “corn polenta” 🙂
The simplicity of this is what makes it amazing. The sweetness of the corn brings out the taste of the tomatoes. It’s the essence of summer flavors. This was so quick and easy. I will make it again very soon while the fresh corn is in season.
Great to hear, Leigh! I couldn’t agree more: the essence of summer!
This was so delicious and simple to prepare that I made it twice in one week.
Great to hear, Danielle! Thanks for writing 🙂