Do you ever crave a food you have never had?
A few years ago I thought I invented apple snickerdoodle cookies. I randomly had the thought in my head one day and called my mom to tell her I made up a new cookie. She very kindly told me those have been around for a long time, and she has made them before.
Fast forward a few years to last weekend, when I randomly wanted to make and eat Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad. I have had Mexican street corn before, and I love pasta salad, but I have never seen the two together.
So, I did what I always do, searched Pinterest. It turns out there are many different recipes for the food I once again thought I made up. I picked one kind of at random and made it for the first time over the weekend.
I started by making the sauce. I did cut the recipe I found in half, and modified it slightly. For the sauce I used:
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 6 tablespoons mayo
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- Dash of cayenne red pepper
- Zest of 1/2 lime
- Juice of 1/2 lime
Mix this all together and set aside.
While I made the sauce I boiled the pasta. I used 1/2 box (8oz) of Rotini pasta. Once the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it and toss with salt, pepper, and olive oil. I put mine in the fridge for a minute or two to help the cooling process.
Next I added one can of corn to the pasta and mixed it together.
Then I crumbled about a 1/4 cup of Queso Fresco cheese. You could also use cotija, but I didn’t have any. I kind of eye balled this, you can’t really have to much cheese.
Once the cheese was crumbled and added I mixed it all together.
Then I added the sauce, covered the dish, and put it in the fridge to chill.
We ate it with salt and pepper baked chicken wings (which were delicious). I felt like it was missing something, but I couldn’t figure out what on the first night. The original recipe called for cilantro, but Aaron hates cilantro so I left it out. I do think next time I will add some red onion for one more flavor.
The next day when I was eating the leftovers I remembered I have some Everything but the Elote seasoning from Trader Joes. That is exactly what this recipe needs! I sprinkled a little on and it was exactly what I imagined it would taste like.
I will still add red onion next time, but this seasoning made all the difference.