“Pasta alla Norma” is a traditional Sicilian dish very easy to prepare. At the base there are: tomato sauce, fried eggplant, smoked salted ricotta and fresh basil. They usually use the macaroni or spaghetti, but you can use the pasta shape you prefer. I love to prepare the sauce with fresh tomatoes and for this reason we usually prepare it mainly in the summer, because tomatoes and eggplants are vegetables produced and consumed during that season. AlsoI realizable a variant of the pasta alla norma: the “Norma timbale”.This is a pie dough that has got the mentioned ingredients and boiled eggs, ham and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese as well. Obviously, in this case, the timbale should gratin into the oven. I think either way it is a tasty and easy dish to cook, so what are you waiting to prepare it?
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- 300 g Italian noodles
- 700 g San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 aubergine
- 2 cloves of peeled garlic
- extra virgin olive oil
- peanut oil
- 40g salted ricotta cheese
- basil leaves
- salt to taste
- sugar to taste
Method
Clean and cut the tomatoes. Put tomatoes into a pot and add olive oil, 2 tablespoon of sugar, a pinch of salt, the sliced onion and the cloves of garlic. Cook over low heat for about 45 minutes. So delete the seems and peel of tomatoes with a food mill. Now add a few leaves of basil and set aside. Clean and cut the aubergine into pieces, sprinkle with salt and set aside for 1 hour (this is helpful to delete the bitter liquid of the aubergine). After fry the aubergine into a pan full of oil (the temperature has to be about 170 Celsius degrees). Then cook spaghetti in a pot full of water, this one has to boil and has to be salted. The pasta should be cooked well but not too much! When spaghetti will cook, mix them with the tomato sauce and the aubergine fried. Put on the dish and strew with salted ricotta cheese grated.