Pasta della Norma – Sicilian Eggplant Pasta
A well-known pasta dish from Sicily. The food is named after Bellini’s opera “Norma”. According to Wikipedia, this food won a tourism award in Italy in 2018 and was named Food of the Year. Since it consists of so many flavors that I like, I can’t argue with it. Made with care, this dish is very tasty.
When it comes to pasta, it is very important to carefully prepare the sauce so that the flavors can blend evenly. The only tricky part about this pasta is that the eggplant needs to be properly cooked first, either in the oven or in a pan, and then added to the sauce.
Food that is worth the effort.
Preparation time: 45 minutes including cooking the eggplant
Level: Easy
Serves: two
Ingredients:
100 g of spaghetti
1 medium eggplant cut into cubes of about 2 cm
500 ml tomato passata
A handful of chopped parsley
A handful of chopped basil
Salt and black pepper to taste
5 medium garlic cloves finely chopped
50g Grated ricotta salata cheese or parmesan
2 tablespoons of olive oil for frying and a few tablespoons of olive oil for cooking eggplants
Preparation:
- Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Cut the eggplant into 2 cm pieces, place on a baking sheet covered with baking paper, sprinkle with olive oil, and bake for about 25-30 minutes until the eggplant is slightly dry but cooked through. Stir the eggplant cubes from side to side with a spoon so that they cook evenly.
- While the eggplant is cooking, chop the garlic, heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat, and fry the garlic for about 1 minute.
- Add the tomato paste to the garlic and let the sauce simmer. Season with black pepper and sea salt, chop parsley and basil, and add to the sauce. Allow to simmer over low heat.
- Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Let the water boil, be sure to add salt, and cook the pasta until semi-soft.
- At the same time, add the cooked eggplant cubes to the sauce and mix gently.
- When the pasta is ready, put the spaghetti from the boiling water directly into the pasta sauce, and mix. If the pasta is dry, add the spaghetti cooking water.
- Grate the ricotta salata or parmesan and shake it on the plate with extra black pepper when serving.
- Serve with a sprig of basil.
Ready!!
