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- Pasta alla Norma, the original Sicilian recipe
Easy
30min
4 People
Pasta alla Norma, the original Sicilian recipe
One of the most loved dishes of our tradition: here is the original recipe for pasta alla Norma!
Ingredients
4 People
500 g of peeled tomatoes
400 g of macaroni
200 g of salted ricotta
2 eggplants
Garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Description
Pasta alla Norma is one of the regional gastronomic specialties favored by Italians.
A true symbol of Sicilian culinary tradition, pasta alla Norma is a dish based on macaroni (but also other types of pasta) seasoned with tomato sauce and with the subsequent addition of fried eggplants, grated salted ricotta, and fresh basil. Easy and quick to cook, you can serve it to friends during a dinner in the garden or for the Sunday family lunch.
The story of the origins of the name of this dish is curious: it seems that a playwright from Catania, in front of a plate of pasta so seasoned, exclaimed: “Chista è ‘na vera Norma!“, to indicate its supreme goodness, comparing it to the masterpiece of the great composer Vincenzo Bellini, to whom the Teatro Massimo in Catania is dedicated, the undisputed city of origin of this recipe.
A perfect first course for a dinner at home with friends, here is the original Catania recipe for pasta alla Norma!
Procedure
1
Wash and trim the eggplants, then cut them into 4 mm thick slices vertically. Place them in a colander sprinkling them, layer by layer, with coarse salt, then cover them with a plate and place a weight on top of them: let them purge like this for at least half an hour.
2
In the meantime, start preparing the tomato sauce, to make your dish a real triumph of goodness and genuineness. Brown the garlic in the oil. Then add the peeled tomatoes and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes.
3
Once the heat is off, add half of the fresh basil leaves. Rinse the eggplants under running water, then dry them well with a clean cloth and then fry them in hot but not boiling olive oil, until golden. Transfer the eggplants to kitchen paper to remove excess oil.
4
Grate the salted ricotta coarsely and throw the pasta into boiling and salted water. While the pasta is cooking, cut the fried eggplants into strips and transfer them to a pan with a few tablespoons of tomato sauce.
5
When the pasta is al dente, drain it and add it to the sauce in the pan; sauté for a minute and then serve the pasta covering it with the remaining tomato sauce, a few whole slices of eggplant, grated salted ricotta, and the remaining fresh basil leaves.
Product information may undergo changes, temporarily causing variations between the information on this page and that on the product label. We therefore invite you to always verify and consider the information on the product label before using and consuming it.
Suggestions
Prepared with few and simple ingredients, which must therefore be absolutely of top quality, pasta alla Norma is a dish that encapsulates all the scents and colors of the Mediterranean island. The versions of this recipe are the most varied and range from those who prefer Parmesan, caciocavallo or ragusano, to those who also add capers and a few anchovies. One of the things everyone agrees on, however, is that the basil leaves cannot be missing, which, with their scent and aroma, perfectly balance the marked flavor of the dish.
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