Mexican Corn Pasta Salad

Recently my Mom called me, and after she was done scolding me for dying my hair pink, she told me that she had started adding corn to her pasta salad and she loved the texture and taste it added to a recipe she had been making for decades. This inspired me to create this Mexican Corn Pasta Salad that combines pasta salad, corn, and roasted peppers with ranch dressing. It's light and refreshing, and perfect for summer. This is the type of recipe that can be made ahead and brought to parties, or portioned out for lunches to bring to work.

I chose not to make my salad spicy, so instead of adding jalapeños, I added poblano peppers, which added a nice smokey flavor. I flirted with the idea of adding avocado and black beans, but decided to keep things simple. If Charles had been around I would have added some crumbled bacon on top.

I used a Ranch dressing made by Tessemae's and it had a great dill flavor that complimented the poblanos peppers and cheese. You can buy the dressing online, and get 10% off with the promo code TheKittchen.

Mexican Corn Pasta Salad

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Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 8

Author: Kit Graham

Ingredients

• 4 ears of Corn
• 4 teaspoons Butter
• a dash of Salt
• 1 Bell Pepper
• 1 Poblano Pepper
• ¾ of a 1 pound box of Pasta
• 1 Lime
• 1 cup Cherry Tomatoes
• 1 cup finely grated Queso Fresco
• Ranch Dressing I used Tessamaes

Instructions

• Start by steaming the corn. I did this by creating little pouches with aluminum foil. If you want to visual - head over to Lakeshore Lady. I removed the husk and any strands from the corn, rinsed the corn, and then spread 1 teaspoon of butter over each ear. Next I created a loose aluminum foil pouch around each ear of corn. Place the corn on a baking sheet - I skipped this step and some butter leaked out and burnt on the bottom of the oven, setting off the fire alarm… oops. Let the corn steam in the oven for 20 minutes at 425 degrees.
• While the corn steams, roast the peppers. I do this by placing the peppers directly over a gas burner and charring the skin of the pepper (this doesn't set off my fire alarm). Rotate the peppers every 2 minutes until all the skin is charred. Then let cool, peel off the charred skin and chop the peppers.
• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, and cook the pasta. Once the pasta is al dente, drain it, pour it into a large bowl, and pour the ranch dressing over. Since the dressing is olive oil based, it will naturally solidify when chilled - if this happens, place the bottle in warm water for 3-5 minutes then shake to stir. Adding the dressing to warm pasta will let the pasta absorb a bit of the dressing making it more flavorful.
• Once the corn has cooled, cut it off the cob, and lightly salt it.
• Add the chopped peppers, tomatoes, and ¾ of the queso fresco to the bowl with the pasta, squeeze the lime over, and stir. Add more dressing if necessary, garnish by topping with the remaining cheese.