Pasta alla Norma is one of the most typical Sicilian recipes. Legend has it that this dish was prepared in Catania for the first time the night of the opening of Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma” and that it was invented in honour of the composer.
One thing is sure, we are talking about two absolute masterpieces!
Ingredients for 4 persons:
- 500 gr canned tomatoes
- 1 large aubergine
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 15 fresh basil leaves
- 200 gr salted ricotta
- evo oil ar
- 1/2 litre peanut oil
Put some evo oil in a sauce pan together with the two cloves of garlic and warm it up. When the garlic has lightly browned add the tomato and half of the basil. Let it simmer for at least 30 minutes. Keep it aside.
Cut the aubergines into 1-2 cm cubes. Put the peanut oil in another sauce pan and warm it up. When it’s ready fry half of the aubergines. When they are nice and golden remove them from the hot oil and drain on kitchen paper and fry the rest of the aubergines. Keep them aside.
Grate the salted ricotta using a coarse grater, and put it aside.
Now all ingredients are ready!
Cook the pasta. Drain it and put it back into the pot, add the tomato sauce, half of the aubergines and the rest of the basil. Mix well.
Prepare the dishes: put some pasta, some fried aubergines and a generous quantity of salted ricotta.
Your meal is ready! Simple and delicious!
PS. Just a couple of things. First, we usually use short pasta with this recipe, like rigatoni or penne. Second, if you cannot find salted ricotta you can use Pecorino cheese instead.
