A Potluck Champ: Warm Corn, Basil, and Goat Cheese Salad

Usually, for me, Labor Day is a day of beer and barbecues. I imagine, most years, it is the same for most people. But this year, as I was driving the hour out to Nerstrand, Minnesota, it dawned on me that thousands of other people (more than 20,000 actually) around the country were getting in their cars and driving to their Labor Day festivities with the exact same purpose as mine: to make a statement about the need for better school lunch.

I was headed to the Minnesota Eat-In, a community gathering that was part of Slow Food’s Time for Lunch campaign. Almost 300 similar gatherings took place across the country (with at least one in every state) on Monday, and Slow Food’s petition now has 20,000 signatures online and another 10,000 on paper. I’m going to skip going through the background of this movement yet again (you can see our previous posts on Time for Lunch here and here). But let’s just say: it’s really incredible when you think about it. And really necessary.

My Eat-In was a wonderful welcome to Minnesota — a beautiful, not too hot or humid day. A nice drive out to the country. The most welcoming hosts I could imagine, at Shepherd’s Way Farms, with tours of their cheesemaking facilities and tastes of their top-notch sheep’s milk cheese. Great company (including someone who shared his own homemade hard cider). And delicious food!

I can’t even begin to list everything on offer (with 150 people, you get a very big potluck), but some stand-outs included: the farm’s cheese (of course), cabbage chutney with naan, 2 different kinds of deviled eggs, pickled beans, slow-cooked baked beans, and fennel-thyme muffins.

Here at FJ, we like corn salad (previous examples are here and here). And I have a feeling I know why: it’s cheap, easy, and absolutely fresh and sweet, and still surprising. For Labor Day, I made a really big batch, half for the Eat-In, and half for a subsequent picnic, and the whole thing took me about 20 minutes and cost less than $20. To create two big tupperwares worth.

I first made this variation on corn salad when I was camping in August, so that should show you just how low-fuss it is. I’ve listed general ratios below; feel free to tinker with them as you will. The tupperware was scraped clean when I went to pick it up after the Eat-In. Always a good sign.

the perfectly pastoral set-up at shepherd's way

Warm Corn, Basil, and Goat Cheese Salad
Serves…probably at least 10 people, as a side dish

Ingredients

- 3 onions, peeled, quartered, sliced (I prefer sliced to diced for this salad, but that’s up to you)
- 6 ears of corn, husked and cut off the cob
- 3 tomatoes, cored, and chopped
- 1 large bunch of basil, leaves pulled off of stems
- 1 large log of goat cheese
- olive oil
- salt, to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan or pot. Add onions. Cook until tender and translucent, but try not to let them brown.

2. Add corn. Cook for just a minute (maybe the length of time it takes you to chop up the tomatoes).

3. Add tomatoes. Cook for just a second (maybe the length of time it takes you to rinse the basil and pull the leaves off the stems). Add a pinch of salt and stir.

4. Turn off heat. Add basil leaves and stir, so they wilt from the heat. I think this tastes best with the goat cheese all melted and mixed in, but it looks more attractive with the goat cheese sprinkled on top. Your choice. Serve warm or at room temperature. (The basil will turn black if you let it sit, but it will still taste fine. If you want perfectly green basil, you have to either serve it right away, or add it later and forgo wilting it, in which case I would chop it up or slice it in ribbons before adding it.)