Pasta alla Norma
Pasta with fried eggplant, tomato and ricotta salata
In Catania, pasta alla Norma brings together eggplant, tomato, basil and ricotta salata. The sauce is direct and lightly cooked. Fried eggplant gives it sweetness and browned edges; a shower of aged cheese brings the salty finish.
The eggplants traditionally sought here are long, black ones called turche. They are fried, never merely softened in the tomato. Fold some pieces through the pasta and save the rest for the top, where their edges remain distinct against the sauce.
The familiar Catanese story gives the dish its operatic name: Nino Martoglio supposedly tasted it and called it a true Norma, invoking Bellini's opera. It is a good local legend, though the exact naming moment is less certain than the dish's place in the city.
Ingredients
Eggplant
- 500 gfirm long black eggplant, trimmed and cut into 1 cm (⅜ in) strips (see note)
- coarse salt, for draining
- extra-virgin olive oil, for frying
Sauce and pasta
- 500 gwhole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 2garlic cloves, lightly crushed
- 30 ml(2 tbsp)extra-virgin olive oil
- 10–12fresh basil leaves, plus a few small leaves to finish
- 300 grigatoni
- 75 gwell-aged ricotta salata, finely grated (see note)
- fine salt
Kitchen notes
- Long black eggplant
- In Catania, cooks call the long black eggplants turche. Choose glossy, firm long eggplants with tight skin. Frying, rather than roasting, gives the pieces the browned edges this dish needs.
- Ricotta salata
- This is firm, salted, aged whey ricotta, made to grate over pasta; it is not fresh ricotta. Look for a dry Sicilian ricotta salata at a specialty Italian market. Do not replace it with feta, Parmigiano, or Pecorino Romano.
Method
Drain the eggplant
- Put the eggplant in a colander, season it generously with coarse salt, and weigh it down with a small plate. Leave for 30 minutes. Rinse away the salt, then press and pat the pieces very dry; surface moisture is what makes frying spatter and turns eggplant greasy.
Make the tomato sauce
- Warm the 2 tablespoons olive oil with the garlic in a wide skillet over medium-low heat until fragrant but not colored. Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10–15 minutes, until the tomatoes have collapsed into a loose sauce; remove the garlic and stir in most of the basil.
Fry the eggplant
- Meanwhile, heat a generous depth of olive oil in a wide pan. Fry the eggplant in small batches until tender, deeply golden at the edges, and no longer spongy. Lift it out with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on paper. Keep about one-third aside for the finished plates.
Dress and serve
- Boil the rigatoni in well-salted water until just shy of al dente. Transfer it to the skillet with the tomato sauce, adding a splash of pasta water only if needed to loosen it. Fold in the remaining fried eggplant and toss over low heat until the pasta is coated and finished cooking.
- Divide among warm bowls. Top with the reserved eggplant, the remaining basil, and the grated ricotta salata. Serve at once.