Corn salad that skips the vinegar
Raw corn straight off the cob, seasoned by the tomatoes and nothing else.
At a Glance
Story
Sweet corn starts converting sugar to starch the moment it leaves the stalk, which is why farm-stand corn eaten the same day tastes like a different vegetable from what sat in a truck. If your corn is that fresh, do not cook it at all. Raw kernels are crisp little pockets of juice and this salad is built to show them off.
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw corn kernelscut from about 4 ears (up to 3 cups; cooked corn works too)
- 1 large ripe tomatocut into small pieces
- 4 oz fetacrumbled (about 1 cup)
- ½ cup fresh mint leaveschopped
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- sumacfor dusting (optional, my addition)
Method
A salad with no dressing to make. Ripe tomato juice carries the acid, the olive oil carries everything else, and the whole business comes together in the time it takes to strip four cobs.
- Put the corn, tomatoes, feta and mint in a wide bowl. Drizzle over the olive oil and toss gently, you want the feta in crumbles, not paste.
- Season with salt and pepper and taste. If your tomatoes are properly ripe the juice does the work of vinegar and it needs nothing else. If you want a little crimson drama, a dusting of sumac over the top brings a lemony tartness that flatters the feta enormously.
- Serve at room temperature, in the shade, with something cold sweating beside it.
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