I would be lying if I said I grew up on creamed corn. The main corn thing I ate as a kid was corn potage, which was a creamy corn soup with bits of egg floating in it. Actually, I’m not even sure if it was supposed to have those egg drop ribbons floating through it, but that’s how my mom would prepare it for us. That being said, this tortellini dish is a loose homage to my mom’s corn potage, but also featuring tortellini. Now, I love stuffed pasta and dumplings. Dough wrapped around a filling is something that gives me serotonin. Granted, I was traumatized after a certain spaghetti and meatball dumpling incident, especially since I taught dumpling making classes, but I’d like to think I’m past that now. For me, pasta-making is therapeutic, and it’s something I have been doing since college. Rolling out the dough, seeing it get super thin and almost transparent, and cutting/folding the dough into whatever shape best fit the ingredients you were serving it with. I wanted to do a stuffed pasta, namely stuffed with cheese, to add a creamy component to my creamed corn sauce that I was serving the pasta with. Ricotta with a little parmesan is a pleasant blank canvas that can work well with the sweetness of corn, so that made a lot of sense to me. I really wanted to keep the flavors corn-focused, or corn-accommodating, so you will see that as a trend in this recipe.

For the pasta, we went with tortellini, since the shape hugs sauces and other ingredients well. Quite literally since the pasta has this hole running through it to catch other components in a dish as you scoop it up with a spoon or fork. I love making tortellini because they are very similar to wontons. They are stuffed with ricotta and parmesan, just to keep it relatively simple. The corn component, we are making essentially a creamed corn, but using brown butter as the base, and whey. Even with store-bought ricotta, there will be whey leftover when you squeeze it with a cheesecloth. And you need to make sure you squeeze the ricotta since the wetter it is, the harder it would be to stuff inside of pasta dough. The liquid that comes out of it, the whey, is not going to waste, but rather, into the creamed corn to add body and a little tang. I also used almond milk, but you can substitute it out with any milk, to loosen the brown butter-whey situation, and give it a saucier consistency, perfect for braising the corn in. This is one of those dishes that is perfect for the fall, when corn is still somewhat in season, but the weather is getting a little chillier, so you’ll need something warm and comforting to eat!

Makes enough for 3-4 people:
For the pasta dough:
1 egg
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of salt
2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

Mix everything together until combined. Dust the surface of the dough with flour and begin rolling out on a pasta roller to the thinnest setting. Cut out 2-inch squares from the dough, re-rolling as necessary to cut out as many squares as possible from the dough itself.

For the filling:
3oz ricotta cheese
1 tsp grated parmesan cheese
a pinch of salt
a pinch of pepper
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

In a cheese cloth, squeeze out the ricotta cheese, straining out and reserving all of the liquid(whey) that is released from it for the corn. Take the ricotta cheese itself and mix it with the other ingredients. Transfer to a piping bag.

For pasta assembly:
1 egg white

Brush the edges of each pasta square with some egg white and then pipe about 2 tsp of the ricotta filling onto each square. Fold each square in half diagonally to form triangles. Then take the two points furthest from one another on the triangle, and fold those on top of one another to form a hoop in front of the tortellini themselves. Reserve any spare ricotta filling, as you will dollop the tops of the dish with that before serving. Once the corn is done, you can boil these tortellini in heavily salted water for 2 minutes, then toss them into the corn to finish.

For the corn:
1 ear of corn
4 tbsp unsalted butter, in four parts
reserved whey from the ricotta
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
a pinch of black pepper
1 tsp parmesan cheese
a pinch of salt

In a pot of boiling water, boil the corn first for about 5 minutes. Allow the corn to cool before shucking off the kernels. In a pan, heat up three parts of the unsalted butter until it turns an amber brown color. Then add in the whey and the remaining butter, stirring until combined. Add back to that the corn kernels, and the rest of the ingredients, and stir on medium heat until the sauce reaches a consistency similar to heavy cream.

To garnish:
Micro basil

In a bowl, spoon the tortellini with the corn and sauce. Garnish the top with a dollop of the ricotta filling and the micro basil.