Italian-Style Grilled Corn Recipe

By
Joshua Bousel
a photo of Joshua Bousel, a Contributing Writer at Serious Eats
Joshua Bousel
Joshua Bousel is a Serious Eats old-timer, having started sharing his passion for grilling and barbecue recipes on the site back in 2008. He continues to develop grilling and barbecue recipes on his own site, The Meatwave, out of his home base of Durham, North Carolina.
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Updated Jun. 05, 2019
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My wife constantly tries to show me the error of my ways when I'm out buying way more food than we need. In my stubbornness, I ignore her informed advice, which often leads to leftovers. In an attempt to win the upper hand, I've been forcing myself to make use of almost every food I was advised against purchasing. This tends to be a futile attempt, but every now and then things turn out in my favor, like this Italian-style grilled corn.

This was born out of an excess of Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses I had gotten for my meatballs last week. To her credit, I don't think my wife would ever say I bought too much cheese (who doesn't like extra cheese in the house?), but after using only one-third of what I had purchased, an impulse arose to use for the remainder. Rolling ears of corn in the cheese—a la Mexican-style corn—was my first thought.

The seasonally excellent, incredibly inexpensive corn was grilled and then slathered in a garlic butter before getting a cheese coating. The flavors were a great mix of sweetness, creamy garlic, and a sharp bite of from the cheeses.

Now if only I were this successful with everything else I overbuy.

Recipe Details

Italian-Style Grilled Corn Recipe

Active 45 mins
Total 15 mins
Serves 4 servings

Ingredients

For the Garlic Butter:

  • 8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

  • 3 cloves garlic, minced

  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

For the Corn:

  • 4 ears corn, husked

  • 1 tablespoon butter

  • Kosher salt

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

  • 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano

Directions

  1. To make the garlic butter, whisk together 8 tablespoons butter, garlic, red pepper flakes, and parsley in a small bowl. Set aside.

  2. Lightly butter the corn with 1 tablespoon of butter and season with salt and pepper to taste. Wrap ears individually in aluminum foil.

  3. Light one chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and spread the coals evenly over entire surface of coal grate. Alternatively, set all the burners of a gas grill to high heat. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate. Place the foiled corn on the grill and cook until tender and slightly charred, about 20 minutes, turning 4 times during cooking. Remove from the grill and let cool for 3 to 5 minutes.

  4. Mix Parmesan and Pecorino together cheeses on a large plate. Open the foiled corn, slather each ear in the garlic butter, roll in the cheese mixture, and serve.

Special equipment

Grill

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
401 Calories
33g Fat
20g Carbs
10g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories 401
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 33g 43%
Saturated Fat 20g 101%
Cholesterol 90mg 30%
Sodium 733mg 32%
Total Carbohydrate 20g 7%
Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
Total Sugars 4g
Protein 10g
Vitamin C 7mg 34%
Calcium 231mg 18%
Iron 1mg 4%
Potassium 235mg 5%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)