Cavatelli With Bacon, Corn, Mushrooms, And Parmesan, A La The Red Hen

• For the roasted mushrooms, the parmesan broth, and the corn brodo:
• 1 pound shiitake mushrooms
• olive oil, for roasting
• salt, pepper, and chopped fresh thyme to taste
• 6 ears sweet corn, husked and de-silked (or 4 cups frozen sweet corn kernels, defrosted)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 head garlic, halved, plus 1 garlic clove, halved
• 1 medium-large onion, chopped
• 2 or 3 carrots and celery stalks (each), chopped (combined, they should roughly equal the quantity of onion)
• 1/4 ounce dried mushrooms (porcini, shiitake, mixed wild...go nuts)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 pinch black peppercorns
• a few (each) parsley and thyme sprigs
• 1 pound parmesan cheese rinds
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 quarts water, brought to a simmer
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• creme fraiche, to taste
• For the finished pasta:
• 1/2-1 pounds cavatelli (the Red Hen uses housemade whole wheat cavatelli, but regular pasta is fine, too; use the lesser amount of pasta if you want a more equitable ratio of pasta to the rest of the components, otherwise use the whole box)
• olive oil, for sauteing
• 4 ounces bacon, preferably double-smoked, diced
• 8 green onions, thinly sliced
• roasted shiitakes, reserved corn kernels, and corn brodo (see above)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, for finishing
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• chopped fresh parsley and thyme, for garnish

1. Heat oven to 500F. Stem the shiitakes, reserving the stems. Slice the caps 1/8" thick. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste, and roast 5-7 mins. Remove to a bowl. Using a microplane, grate 1/2 a clove of garlic (or more/less to taste) over, and season with fresh thyme and more salt and pepper if necessary. Toss and set aside until ready to use.
2. Cut the kernels from the 6 ears of corn. (You should get ~4 1/2 - 5 cups.) Set two cups kernels aside for the brodo, and the rest for the pasta. Scrape the cobs over the reserved brodo kernels with the back of your knife to extract the sweet corn "milk." Reserve the cobs. (NOTE: If fresh corn is out of season, skip this step and use defrosted frozen kernels--2 cups for the brodo and 2 for the pasta--instead.)
3. Heat a little olive oil and 1 tbsp butter in a large pot over medium heat. When the butter melts, add the scraped corn cobs and reserved shiitake stems, along with the halved garlic head, onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, herbs, and spices. Let the aromatics soften, 8-10 mins, stirring occasionally. (Look for browning of the garlic and translucence of the onions.) As in the Cowgirl recipe, add the cheese rinds next, allowing them to sit at the bottom of the pot for short periods of time (10 seconds between scrapes) to get some nice browning going. Deglaze with white wine, stirring to scrape up all the good stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan, and reduce by half, then add the 2 quarts of simmering water. How long you let it go on the stove depends how robust a flavor you want--about two hours at a gentle simmer will reduce the broth by half, yielding a quart. A shorter simmer (say an hour), will yield a less-concentrated quart and a half. In either case, be sure to stir often (every five minutes, give or take), as the rinds will stick to the bottom and scorch otherwise. When reduced to the desired amount, strain and cool. Season to taste with salt. If making far enough in advance, refrigerate overnight so a fat cap forms and is easily removable. Otherwise, do your best to skim fat from the surface once the broth has cooled. You will only need 2 cups broth for the corn brodo; reserve the rest for another use.
4. Next, make the corn brodo. Melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, and saute the 2 cups reserved corn kernels with 1/2 cup chopped onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves until corn is tender. Remove from heat and let cool, then puree with 2 cups of the parmesan broth until smooth. Put through a fine-mesh sieve, then whisk in a few tbsps of creme fraiche and season with salt to taste. Set aside til ready to use.
5. Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil, and cook the cavatelli according to package directions, draining it just shy of the recommended cook time, as it will finish cooking in the sauce. (Reserve some of the cooking water--a cup should do.)
6. While the pasta is cooking, film a large skillet with olive oil and saute the bacon and green onions over medium heat, until bacon starts to brown and crisp at the edges. Add the remaining reserved corn kernels and roasted shiitakes--about a 1/2 cup of each per person. (You may have some leftover mushrooms.) Toss. Add corn brodo and lower to a simmer.
7. When pasta is ready, toss it in the sauce with a little of the pasta water and allow it to finish cooking. Add more water if too dry. Remove from heat and stir in butter and parmesan. Garnish with parsley, thyme, and a little extra parmesan, and serve.

mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, olive oil, salt, sweet corn, unsalted butter, garlic, onion, carrots, mushrooms, bay leaf, black peppercorns, parsley, parmesan cheese, white wine, water, yellow onion, garlic, creme fraiche, pasta, cavatelli, olive oil, bacon, green onions, corn, unsalted butter, freshly grated parmesan cheese, parsley

Taken from food52.com/recipes/47494-cavatelli-with-bacon-corn-mushrooms-and-parmesan-a-la-the-red-hen (may not work)