Pasta alla Norma, an institution in Sicily, more precisely in Catania where it was born, a very simple dish with few ingredients but rich in flavor, prepared rigorously with fried eggplants.
Pasta alla Norma, like all typical recipes, has delicious variations in every family, and they lovingly preserve them, passed down as in this case from grandma.
The Norma sauce is made with peeled tomatoes or tomato purée, a simple sauce that enriches the fried eggplants, finished with grated salted ricotta directly over each plate.
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If you also love eggplants and traditional recipes, look below at the other ideas I propose and then let’s go right after the photo to discover how to prepare Grandma’s Pasta alla Norma!!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients for Pasta alla Norma
- 14 oz pasta (penne, mezze maniche or rigatoni)
- 1 lb eggplants
- 14 oz tomato purée (or peeled tomatoes)
- 1 clove garlic
- 5 oz salted ricotta
- to taste basil
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 2 pinches salt
Preparation of Grandma’s Pasta alla Norma
To prepare Pasta alla Norma, first make the tomato purée with fresh tomatoes, preferably from Pachino.
We usually make it and preserve it to always have it ready, if you don’t have it, you can use peeled tomatoes.
The tomato sauce should be cooked for at least 20 minutes with extra virgin olive oil and strictly without onion until it’s nice and thick, then you can pass it through a food mill.
Then put it back in the pan, add the crushed garlic clove and basil leaves broken by hand, salt.
Meanwhile, while the tomato is cooking, focus on the eggplants, cut off the stem, and slice into 0.4-inch rounds, then into cubes.
In some areas of Sicily, eggplants are sliced thinly and fried, but we make them into cubes.
Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a small pan and fry a few eggplant cubes at a time, then drain them with a slotted spoon.
Let them drain excess oil on paper towels.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in plenty of lightly salted water, keeping it al dente.
Once the pasta is cooked and the sauce ready, drain it directly into the pan with the sauce, stir to flavor.
Serve Pasta alla Norma on individual plates, topping with fried eggplants and a grating of salted ricotta.
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