- 8
Ingredients
- 4 to 6 ears sweet corn
- 3-1/2 to 4 pounds fresh lima beans in the shell
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 or 4 plump garlic cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon peperoncino
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup water
Preparation
Step 1
Cut the kernels from the ears of corn until you have 4 or 5 cups.
Shell all the lima beans. You should get at least a quart of shelled beans from 4 pounds of beans in the shell. Rinse the shelled limas, getting rid of any bits of the pods, and drain them well.
Put the olive oil in the skillet, toss in the garlic slices and cook them over medium-high heat for just a minute. Dump all the limas from the bowl into the pan—keep your face away, as there will be a lot of sizzling when the damp beans hit the oil. Immediately cover the pan, give it a good shake, and turn down the heat to low-medium.
Cook the limas, covered, and shake the pan frequently. Uncover it every 3 minutes or so and quickly check that the beans are sizzling and softening but not burning. After 10 minutes, sprinkle over the salt and peperoncino; cover and cook for another minute. Then add the corn kernels and stir them into the beans. Cook covered, another 5 minutes, then add 1/2 cup of water to the pan and cover again.
Cook another 8 to 10 minutes, until the beans and the kernels are tender to the bite, but not mushy, and have caramelized lightly on the edges.
Serve the Corn and Limas right away, right from the pan or pile them on a platter covered with a thin layer of Basil-Onion sauce (see recipe below) . Scoop up some of the sauce with each serving spoonful.
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For Serving: 1 cup Basil -Onion Sauce
2/3 cup fresh, unblemished basil leaves, packed
1-1/2 cups of onion chunks (about 8 ounces of onion in 1-inch pieces)
1 cup of leek chunks (1-inch pieces)
2 cups water
3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, best quality
1/2 teaspoon salt
Reserve 5 or 6 bright green basil leaves (about 2 tablespoons) and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Put the remainder of the basil in a small saucepan with all the other ingredients (including just 1 tablespoon of olive oil). Bring the water to a boil, cover the pot and boil gently for 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the cover and boil steadily another 20 minutes or longer, reducing the contents of the pot to 1 cup—about 1/4 the original volume. Lower the heat if necessary, as liquid evaporates, to avoid burning the sauce ingredients.
When sufficiently concentrated, scrape everything from the pot into the bowl of a food processor and purée. Roughly chop the reserved basil leaves with a knife, then add the pieces to the food processor and purée until they’re incorporated. Finally, with the machine running, drizzle in the 2 tablespoons of excellent olive oil, to form a light emulsion.
Serve the sauce warm with cooked vegetables; reheat on the stove if it has cooled off. Store in the refrigerator.