Here’s a smart idea from Cicchetti chefs Mike Sheerin and Phil Rubino — using in-season sweet corn as the basis of pasta. The result is a balanced and sophisticated dish ($16) with surprisingly familiar flavors, reminiscent of Italy, Mexico and a late summer grill-out at the beachhouse.
1. Corn pasta: Sheerin says he and Rubino began brainstorming ideas last year to involve corn in pasta. One idea was to create a shell pasta made from corn and stuffing it with crab meat. Eventually they settled on hand-rolled pasta. Because of the high sugar content in corn, there was a fear of starchiness. Their solution was shucking the corn, quickly freezing it, grounding it and combining it with semolina and double-zero flour. Xanthan gum, a molecular gastronomist’s trusted friend, is added to give the pasta elasticity and bite.
2. Smoked pink shrimp: Pink shrimp is lightly smoked with applewood for seven minutes. The idea bridges two thoughts — the association of summertime and the charred smokiness of cobbed corn on the grill, as well as the familiar Italian flavors of spaghetti carbonara. The smokiness of bacon could be loosely replicated with smoked shrimp.
3. Corn cream sauce: One way chefs come up with new dishes is by playing food association. Sheerin is fond of Mexican elotes, especially the creaminess of corn slathered with mayonnaise and butter. So he decided to puree corn into a cream sauce. “We talk about this at our restaurant: Ethnic cuisines are often times one or two ingredients apart from one another,” Sheerin said. “There’s a lot of familiarities between Mexican and Spanish and Italian cooking. We’re Venetian inspired, and there’s definitely corn, lime and black pepper available in that area.”
4. Lime salt/pepita crumble: Playing off the Mexican inspiration, toasted pumpkin seeds add both textural contrast and a nutty accent. Lime salt (lime zest, sugar, salt, toasted black pepper) and lime juice are the tart elements that cutthrough the richness of the dish.
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Cicchetti
671 N. St. Clair St.
312-642-1800
cicchettirestaurant.com
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