Spaghetti With Creamy Corn And Ham

Well first of all, I know what you are thinking.  It is meatless Monday yet you can see, clear as day, the word 'ham' in the title of the recipe.  It's true, I have relented on keeping this Monday meatless.  I have a good reason.  My husband is on vacation starting today and I asked him to pick out 7 recipes from the to try file since he will be here for dinner all week.  Only after he chose did I realize that there were no meatless recipes.  Rather than have him look again, I figured vacation week we could splurge.  I picked this one for today since it has very little meat.  On to the dinner... Tonight's dinner was truly a family meal.  My son chopped parsley (among other things) under the supervision and tutelage of my husband, while I let the 2 yr old drop ears of corn into the pot of boiling water using some very long tongs and me directing.  She was actually really good at it.  She even did a few by herself. (yes while I hovered too close) We all did part of the meal.  That may have had a little bearing on how much we loved it but it certainly wasn't the only reason.  This tasted very fresh.  It really made corn the star.  I had only one issue and it was with the ham.  I think that (we all did actually) the long, thin slices of ham weren't the right size.  The pieces should have been smaller so we could have gotten ham in every bite.  The smoky and saltiness of the ham were only there (obviously) when the ham was in the bite and the ham was only in a very few bites.  Then, because of the size, when the ham was in the bite, it dominated rather than supported the corn.  Still, we all loved it and thought it just got better with each bite.  The recipe also had an issue.  I used 8 cobs of corn and had barely 3 cups.  So I don't know what planet they get their gargantuan ears of corn, but they aren't anywhere near that size here;).  Keep that in mind when shopping for this recipe.  Not only was this recipe delicious, it was easy and fast and inexpensive.  I want to add an additional quantification to these recipes.  I want to give them a 1-5 rating.  (call them stars, forks, spoons, whatever)  1 being run screaming from this dish, 2 maybe salvageable with a lot of fixing, 3 a good meal but nothing that really wowed us, 4 a great dinner,  and 5 is OMG delicious and would be on the menu of our restaurant. (if we ever had one). 

This dish gets a solid 4 stars


Spaghetti With Creamy Corn And Ham

4    large ears corn,husks and silk removed
3/4 c  heavy cream
3 T  chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 t  salt
1/4 t  fresh-ground black pepper
3/4 lb spaghetti
1/4 lb Ham (smoked),Sliced, cut into thin strips
2 T  butter,cut into pieces

1. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the ears of corn until
just done, about 3 minutes. Remove the corn from the pot and save the
hot water to cook the spaghetti. When the ears of corn are cool enough
to handle, cut the kernels off the cob. You should have about 3 cups of
kernels.
2. Put the corn in a food processor with the cream, parsley, salt, and
pepper. Pulse three or four times to chop the corn to a coarse puree.
3. Return the water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until just
done, about 12 minutes. Reserve about 3/4 cup of the pasta water. Drain
the spaghetti and toss with 1/3 cup of the reserved pasta water, the
corn mixture, the ham, and the butter. If the sauce seems too thick,
add more of the reserved pasta water.