Italian-Inspired Roasted Corn on the Cob

Italian-Inspired Roasted Corn on the Cob is the perfect way to prepare corn inside and still give it that grilled taste. This easy side dish is perfect for all your summer gatherings and BBQs. Garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese add a special Italian touch to this corn!

There’s something about corn on the cob that just screams summertime and BBQs to me. I cook corn a ton in our house because it’s one of the few vegetables (if you consider it a vegetable) that Zach will actually eat and enjoy. I normally boil it on the stovetop but this past weekend, with it being Memorial Day and the unofficial kick-off to the summer, I decided to switch things up a bit. I even went a little fancy and made an Italian-Inspired Roasted Corn on the Cob.

I really wanted to grill this weekend but there were two major obstacles that prevented this from happening.

Number one: There was a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico that caused some pretty crummy weather here in Florida. I’m already scared to death for this upcoming hurricane season if this is any indication of what we are going to expect. Our horrible experience with Hurricane Irma last year makes me want to become a “Hurricane Bird”. That’s my made-up term that follows the same concept as a snowbird, where our family relocates somewhere else safe for Hurricane Season. Want to see why I’m so scared. Check out our pontoon during Hurricane Irma, here. We were crossing our fingers it didn’t end up in our living room.

And reason number two: Patrick worked all weekend long including Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a really big weekend for the car business so he never has it off. I was thinking he might want to throw some burgers on the grill Monday night when he came home from work but he ended up getting stuck at work a little late. I had to go with Plan B for dinner which meant I was going to have to cook everything inside. No biggie. I made it work!

Do you ever have a taste for something and you just can’t knock it no matter how hard you try? You try to eat other things but you’re never really satisfied until you have what you truly wanted to begin with. That’s the feeling I had last night when I was trying to figure out a way to prepare my corn on the cob. All day long I had the idea of grilling. I wanted grilled corn on the cob so badly and my normal stovetop method just wasn’t going to work. How was I going to fix this?

Here’s what I did instead to mimic that grilled flavor without the actual grill. I roasted the corn on the cob in the oven for about 40 minutes. I placed the corn on the cob in aluminum foil and smothered it with olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese. After the 40 minutes, I opened the aluminum foil and turned on my broiler for about 5 minutes to get a good burn on the corn on the cob. I sprinkled the hot corn with a little more grated parmesan cheese and went to town! Not too shabby for Plan B…

So what do I need to make Italian-Inspired Roasted Corn on the Cob?

4 ears of corn, ½ cup olive oil, 2 garlic cloves (minced), ½ cup grated parmesan cheese plus a little extra for garnish

Begin by shucking your corn on the cob (removing the husk and stem) and place them on their own individual pieces of aluminum foil big enough to wrap them up completely.

Mince your two garlic cloves and grate your parmesan cheese. I love how the fresh parmesan cheese tastes in this dish but you can use the stuff in the green container if that’s all you have. 😉

In a small saucepan, heat your 1/2 cup of olive oil over medium heat.

While the oil is heated through, add your two cloves of minced garlic to the saucepan for just a minute. I laughed about this, but the garlic looks like tiny larva in the saucepan when it hits the hot oil. Be very careful to just keep it on for a minute and not to brown the garlic. Browned garlic is bitter and yucky!

Allow the oil to cool for a couple of minutes before tossing your grated parmesan cheese into the saucepan.

Stir everything together.

Smother all four ears of corn with the garlic and cheese mixture.

Wrap the corn up tightly and place them in a 350-degree oven for 40 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time (at 20 minutes), flip over the corn.

After forty minutes, open up the aluminum foil and set the corn on the cob under the broiler. I let mine go for about 5 minutes but make sure to keep an eye on them.

Pull the charred corn out of the oven and sprinkle it with the remaining parmesan cheese.

Sit back and relax and be prepared to go to heaven!

Italian-Inspired Roasted Corn on the Cob was exactly what I needed to trick myself into thinking I just ate food right off the BBQ.  I can see myself making this easy side dish all summer long. It’s finger-licking good! This is a summer must-have for sure!

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