Pasta alla Norma (recipe)

Catania’s classic dish, pasta alla Norma, is perfect for a midweek dinner alone or with guests.

Like some of the best Italian recipes, the Bellini cocktail, carpaccio and so on, pasta alla Norma is dedicated to an important artist: Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835), perhaps Catania’s most famous son.

Simply delicious

The recipe is quite simple: prepare a tomato sauce infused with garlic and basil; add some deep fried eggplant, serve with pasta and top it with grated ricotta salata (salted ricotta cheese) and you’re done. And when you taste it your reaction will be simple, ‘what a winner!’ you will exclaim.

Chista è ‘na vera Norma!

This is exactly how the dish got its name. The story goes that one day, a Sicilian playwright, Nino Martoglio (1870-1921), tasted this dish and cried out, ‘Chista è ‘na vera Norma!‘ (‘This is a real Norma!) What he meant was ‘an instant success’, as Bellini’s 1831 opera of that name had been. The name stuck and the rest is history.

Eggplant

Before I give you the recipe, here’s a word on cooking eggplant. This vegetable is, if cooked correctly, one of the most heavenly things imaginable. There is, however, a special place in Hell for chefs who, all too often, cook it badly. I have often been presented with undercooked eggplant which has something of the consistency and taste of an apple but not in a good way. Instead, a well-cooked eggplant will be soft with the piquancy of mature cheese.

Cooking them well

The key to cooking aubergine is to look at it carefully. While it retains its natural, off-white colour, it is undercooked. At a certain moment however, the eggplant flesh with turn a golden colour. At this point its ready.

Fried or roasted?

As with all traditional Sicilian cooking, in pasta alla Norma, the eggplant is fried. However, if you are averse to frying, the eggplant can be roasted in the oven, doused with plenty of olive oil for about twenty minutes at 200°C / 390°F. You sometimes see this dish made with the eggplant cut into chunks. I am reliably informed that in Catania, the true recipe requires the eggplant to be sliced. This is certainly how I’ve seen it served there.

Serving

Pasta alla Norma is usually made with short pasta such as rigatoni or penne. These work best with the sauce. Do not be tempted to use long pasta such as spaghetti. Serve with a nice glass of full-bodied red wine, particularly a local Etna Rosso if you can find it. Buon appetito!

Pasta alla Norma

lucamarchiori Catania’s classic dish, pasta alla Norma, is perfect for a midweek dinner alone or with guests. Like some of the best Italian recipes, the Bellini cocktail, carpaccio and so on, pasta alla Norma is dedicated to an important artist: Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835), perhaps Catania’s most famous son. Simply delicious The recipe is quite simple: prepare …

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Serves: 4

Rating: 3.0/5

( 3 voted )

Ingredients

• 2 eggplants

  rock salt

  peanut oil for frying

  600g (4 cups) passata 

  1 clove garlic

  3 basil leaves

  320g (11 ounces) short pasta (rigatoni or penne)

  3 1/2 liters (7 pints) water

  3 teaspoons salt

  100g (3 1/2 ounces) ricotta salata, grated

Instructions

1. Thinly slice the eggplants. Put a colander in a large bowl. Place the eggplant slices in layers in the colander, sprinkling a little rock salt over each layer. Put a small plate on top and weigh it down with two bags of sugar. Leave for about an hour and a half. During this time they will degorge their bitter juices which will be left in the bowl. 
2. Remove the eggplant slices and rinse them. Then dry them using paper towels. 
3. Fill a large frying pan with the peanut oil. It should be about a 2 cm (1 inch) deep. Heat it over a low flame until small bubbles begin to rise. 
4. Fry the eggplant slices in batches for about 6 minutes each or until cooked. The exact time will depend on the temperature of the oil. 
5. Remove the slices from the oil and dry them on paper towels. 
6. In another frying pan, place the passata with the garlic clove and the basil leaves. Heat gently for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Then remove the garlic clove. 
7. Bring the water to the boil. When it is boiling, add the salt. Then cook the pasta according to the manufacturer’s instructions. 
8. Meanwhile, reserve eight slices of eggplant, and then chop the rest into smaller pieces. Mix the smaller pieces through with the tomato sauce. 
9. When the pasta is cooked, drain, and mix it with the tomato and eggplant sauce. Place two slices of aubergine on each serving plate and then place the pasta on top. 
10. Garnish with the grated cheese and a basil leaf. 

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