Finely chop the garlic. Strip the corn from the cobs and dice the squash into 1/4-inch cubes. Chop the tomatoes roughly. Put a large pot of generously salted water on to boil.
Put 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large sauté pan with high sides over low heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and fragrant (but not brown), 3 to 5 minutes. Raise the heat to medium and add the corn and squash and several pinches of salt. Cook for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes and another couple pinches of salt; when the mixture bubbles, lower the heat so that it's simmering briskly. (You want the tomatoes to cook down and release their juices into the sauce while the pasta cooks, but you don't want it to get dry.)
Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the package directions, until just al dente. Keep an eye on your sauce and lower or turn off the heat if it's looking at all dry.
Reserve a cup of the pasta cooking water and drain the pasta well. Stir the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the pasta, then add it to the sauce and stir through. Add a little of the pasta water to loosen things up, taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary and some freshly cracked black pepper. Tear the basil roughly and stir it into the pasta. Serve right away, adding a few dollops of ricotta to each portion.
Omg I just made this and I'm currently sitting down eating. This meal is amazing I usually never go for seconds but I am now. This recipe will be a keeper in my book. Thank you for sharing!
Have made this twice, the first time with store bought ricotta and tomatoes, this time with my homemade ricotta and garden tomatoes. Both times, when I tasted it in the pan, I thought it was "just OK", but when I added the ricotta, it turned into something really special (my husband raved for a couple of days about it, and fought me for the leftovers :-). The ricotta really makes this dish. And while it was worth raving about with the storebought ingredients, the home grown stuff took it to a new level
I made this a few days ago adding fresh Parmesan instead of ricotta, which would have meant a trip to the store for one item. I added the last of the leftovers (I had a lot!) to some fresh turkey breasts that I'd poached in the last of a big batch of Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter from last summer (I lay my freezer bags flat and this one was hiding in between other tomato-based items - lucky me!). Everything was tasty and satisfying. Thanks for these versatile recipes, Merrill. :-)
Just finished scarfing this down - so good! I'm already looking forward to the leftovers for lunch this week. I also wondered about the 1/4 cup olive oil listed in the ingredients vs. only the 2 tbsp mentioned in the instructions, but I had already added 1/4 cup to the pan so I went with it and it was fine. The only change I made was to mix in a handful of grated parmesan at the end.
See what other Food52ers are saying.