Why We Love This Recipe
- Flavor—A Mediterranean recipe with intense, distinctly Italian flavors: tomato, eggplant, basil, and lots of flavor from the salted ricotta. The final taste is unique due to the sweetish flavor of the ripe tomatoes with the contrast of salt from the cheese that will melt in your mouth with every forkful.
- Easy and Quick—This easy Pasta Alla Norma recipe requires no skill nor any special kitchen tools.
- Vegetarian Recipe—Naturally vegetarian, and with gluten-free pasta, it is suitable for people with Celiac disease.
Choose High-quality Ingredients
- Tomatoes: Use very ripe tomatoes or some tomato sauce, e.g., Mutti.
- Salted Ricotta: It must be salted and preferably made from sheep’s milk if you can find it.
- Eggplant: Pasta Alla Norma requires fresh, intact eggplant, purple, and slightly oval, Italian-type eggplant.
- Basil: It must be fresh; otherwise, the flavor will be less intense.
- Oil: It must be an extra virgin olive oil to preserve the flavors of the original recipe.
- Pasta: It must be ribbed (penne or rigatoni) so it will hold and absorb the sauce better.
How to Make Pasta Alla Norma
Chop Tomatoes: Remove the stems but leave the skin on. Coarsely chop them and remove the seeds under running water. Cook Pasta.- Slice it lengthwise ¼ inch
- Place the slices in a perforated plate in a single layer and sprinkle them generously with coarse salt;
- Let them rest for about 20 minutes (while the tomatoes are cooking)
- Rinse off the salt in cold running water and dry them with a paper towel. Be careful, if the eggplant slices are not dry, they absorb too much oil and become indigestible.
Recipe Variations:
- Eggplant: The eggplant can be cut into cubes if you prefer. Grill the eggplant or bake it in the oven to make it lighter. If you don’t have eggplant, you can use zucchini! The process is the same; you can fry the slices or grill them.
- Cottage Cheese: You can also replace the salted ricotta with fresh cottage cheese.
- Spicy: Add whole or dried chili pepper to the sauce if you like it spicy.
- Vegan: Replace the salted ricotta salata with tofu, preferably smoked. Crumble it over the hot pasta.
- Make Norma Plain: Don’t add tomatoes if you are not a tomato lover!
Make Ahead and Storage Instructions:
To Make Ahead: The best Pasta Alla Norma recipe should be freshly prepared and served hot with the melted cheese. The only item you can prepare in advance is the tomato sauce, which you can keep for about two days in the refrigerator.Pasta Alla Norma
Author: Lauren Allen Servings: 4 People Calories: 476 Prep: 30 Minutes Cook: 15 Minutes Total: 42 Minutes- Knife
- Perforated tray frying pan
- Large pot
- Box Grater
- Immersion Blender
- 3.5 lb tomatoes, ripe, (1.5 kg)
- 1 lb purple Italian eggplant (450g)
- ½ cup ricotta cheese, salted, (100g)
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 bunch fresh basil leaves
- 4 tbs extra virgin olive oil, Bertolli
- salt , fine, to taste
- coarse salt
- 1 liter extra virgin olive oil , or seed oil for frying
- 3 ½ cups Barilla or De Cecco Rigatoni or Mezze Maniche pasta (360g)
- 3 liters water
- 2 ¼ cups coarse salt (30g)
Wash and dry the eggplant well. Cut the eggplant into slices about ¼ inch lengthwise. Sprinkle with salt and leave slices to drain for at least 15 minutes.
Coarsely chop tomatoes and transfer them to a saucepan with oil, salt, 2 cloves of poached garlic, and basil. Allow it to cook for about 30 minutes.
Remove the garlic (if you like more flavor, leave it in the tomatoes);
Purée the tomatoes with an immersion blender at a very low speed.
Transfer sauce to a frying pan, add the last clove of garlic and a few basil leaves.
Fry eggplant slices at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) in extra virgin olive oil, drain them, and pat them well with paper towels. Add slices to tomato sauce.
Cook the pasta al dente in boiling salted water (3 liters of water with 1.5 tablesoons (30g) of salt). Drain when ready.
Sauté the pasta in the pan with the sauce and eggplant over high heat for a couple of minutes.
Flavor it with remaining basil, divided among the plates, and add a generous amount of grated salted ricotta on each plate.
Notes
Variations- Eggplant: The eggplant can be cut into cubes if you prefer. Grill the eggplant or bake it in the oven to make it lighter. If you don’t have eggplant, you can use zucchini! The process is the same; you can fry the slices or grill them.
- Cottage Cheese: You can also replace the salted ricotta with fresh cottage cheese.
- Spicy: Add whole or dried chili pepper to the sauce if you like it spicy.
- Vegan: Replace the salted ricotta salata with tofu, preferably smoked. Crumble it over the hot pasta.
- Make Norma Plain: Don’t add tomatoes if you are not a tomato lover!