PASTA ALLA NORMA (Pasta with tomatoes, and eggplants)

These are the last of the autumn eggplants and I will not be buying any more until they come into season again next summer.

I ate at a friend’s house recently and she cooked one of my fish recipes; she apologized for using tinned tomatoes instead of fresh and asked me if it had altered the taste of the recipe. There was no need to make an apology - the fish tasted great and I told her that I only use red, fresh tomatoes in cooking when they are sold ripe and at a reasonable price; the tins of whole, peeled tomatoes I buy are a perfectly suitable substitute, and quick too. There are some summer pasta dishes which call for uncooked, ripe tomatoes and I would never substitute tinned ones for these recipes.

Pasta alla norma is one of those dishes Sicilians are extremely fond of   especially in late summer when the tomatoes are ripe, the basil is abundant and the eggplants are at their best. The dish originates from Catania, the city that my mother’s family comes from. Many presume that the dish is named after the opera, La Norma, by the composer Vincenzo Bellini who was born in Catania (1801-1835), but there are others who think that the expression ‘a norma’ (in Sicilian) was commonly used in the early 1900s to describe food that was cooked true to form (i.e. as normal, as it should be) according to all the rules and regulations specified in the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

pasta, I have used casarecci, 500g

eggplants, 500g or more

extra virgin olive oil, 1 ½ cups ( ½ cup for the tomato salsa,1 cup to fry the eggplant) 

garlic, 3 cloves

ripe tomatoes, 1k, peeled and chopped

salt (a little) and freshly ground black pepper to taste

basil, fresh leaves (10-15) some for the salsa and some for decoration

PROCESSES

Remove the stem end of eggplant and without peeling and slice or cut into cubes. Soak in salted water if you wish. Pat-dry the eggplant and fry in 1 cup of olive oil until golden. Drain on paper towels.

Make the tomato salsa: place the tomatoes in the pan with garlic, oil, salt and some basil leaves: cook uncovered on medium heat till it is thick.

Cook pasta and drain.

Mix the pasta with the tomato sauce, place in a serving bowl (s) and top with the eggplants and the remaining basil.

Present with grated cheese, preferably ricotta salata.

VARIATION

I ate a version of the same recipe it in a seafood restaurant in San Leone (on the coast, near to Agrigento). The tagliatelle were presented on top of half an eggplant, (which had been cut in half and then fried). The sauce also contained a few currants and a few anchovies, thin slices of bottarga (dry, salted tuna roe) and cubes of ricotta salata. It does look very spectacular, but if you intend to do this, and are using a large round eggplant, cut the eggplant horizontally and remove a slice from the centre of it to make it thinner – the eggplant it will cook more evenly.

See Pasta con Bottarga recipe:

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