🍝 Pasta alla Norma
Pasta alla Norma is a Sicilian pasta tossed with fried eggplant, a simple tomato and basil sauce and a generous grating of salty ricotta salata. The eggplant is soft and slightly crisp at the edges, the sauce bright and the cheese sharp. It is usually made with short pasta or spaghetti and served hot.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 320 g pasta (maccheroni or spaghetti)
- 2 eggplants (about 600 g), cubed
- 500 g tomato sauce
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- Fresh basil and salt
- 50 g ricotta salata, grated
Method
- Salt the eggplant 20 minutes, pat dry and fry in 2 tbsp oil until golden.
- Warm the remaining oil with the garlic, add the tomato sauce and simmer 10 minutes with basil.
- Cook the pasta, drain and toss with the sauce and most of the eggplant.
- Top with the remaining eggplant and ricotta salata.
How to make it lighter
- Roast the eggplant instead of frying it: fried eggplant absorbs a lot of oil.
- Measure the oil: 1 tbsp olive oil ≈ 120 kcal.
- Keep pasta to 80 g dry per person and double the eggplant.
History
The dish comes from Catania. Its name is usually credited to the writer Nino Martoglio, who is said to have compared it to Norma, the opera by the Catania-born composer Vincenzo Bellini, as a mark of perfection. It is now one of the best-known Sicilian pastas.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →