Five ears of corn and very little else

Name: Five ears of corn and very little else
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: fine sea or table salt; ½ cup red onion, thinly sliced; 2 tsp lemon juice (plus more to taste); 1 lb cavatelli, or another small shape such as orecchiette or shells; 5 ears corn, shucked and kernels cut off (about 4 cups, and frozen corn is genuinely fine out of season); 2 cups ripe tomatoes, diced; ½ cup olive oil (plus more for serving); 3 cloves garlic, grated (3 small cloves or 2 large); ½ tsp red pepper flakes (plus more for serving); ½ cup soft herbs, chopped, such as mint, basil or cilantro (or a combination, plus more for serving); fresh ricotta, to serve (optional)

The onions go pink in lemon, the tomatoes stay raw, and a small pan of garlic oil is poured over the lot.

At a Glance

Time

25 min

Serves

Story

Give the sliced onion its ten minutes alone in the lemon juice before anything else joins it. Acid blunts the sulphur compounds that make raw onion taste like an argument, and at the same time it swings the purple pigment in the skin round to a hot, improbable pink. That color is your timer. When the slices have gone properly pink they have also gone properly mild, and you can stop watching them.

Ingredients

fine sea or table salt
½ cup red onionthinly sliced
2 tsp lemon juiceplus more to taste
1 lb cavatellior another small shape such as orecchiette or shells
5 ears cornshucked and kernels cut off (about 4 cups, and frozen corn is genuinely fine out of season)
2 cups ripe tomatoesdiced
½ cup olive oilplus more for serving
3 cloves garlicgrated (3 small cloves or 2 large)
½ tsp red pepper flakesplus more for serving
½ cup soft herbschopped, such as mint, basil or cilantro (or a combination, plus more for serving)
fresh ricottato serve (optional)

Method

Practically a no-cook dinner, and the closest thing I have to a reward for getting through August. One pot, one small pan and everything else goes in raw.

Toss the sliced onion with the lemon juice and a pinch of salt in a large bowl and leave it while you do everything else. It has ten minutes and it needs them.
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook to package directions, dropping the corn kernels in for the last 2 to 4 minutes. They want warming through, not cooking, so the kernels still pop. Drain.
Meanwhile the onions should have turned pink. Add the diced tomatoes and 1 teaspoon salt to their bowl and leave it to sit while the pasta finishes.
In a small skillet, put the olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes in together and only then turn the heat to medium-high. Starting garlic in cold oil is deliberate, it perfumes the whole half cup on the way up instead of scorching on contact. Let it go about 1 minute, fragrant and not remotely brown, then pour it straight over the tomatoes. It will hiss and half-cook them, which is exactly what you want.
Add the drained pasta and corn and stir well to coat. Mix in the herbs. Taste and add more lemon and salt, then keep tasting, since a dish this plain has nowhere to hide.

Serve it warm, at room temperature, or cold from the fridge tomorrow, when it is arguably better. Finish with more olive oil, more herbs, a scatter of chili flakes and dollops of ricotta if you have it in.

On the pass