Pasta Alla Norma, My Way Recipe (2024)

In pasta Norma it is essential to keep the tomatoes and the eggplants apart for as long as possible, because the acidity in the tomatoes kills the eggplants' flavor. In Sicily, the pasta is served tossed will all the ingredients except the eggplants, and the eggplants are added the table!

to reduce oil, I roast eggplant on a greased sheet for 12-15 mins @ 450, then seal in foil for 15 mins to finish cooking and soften

I do the same and, to save time, just cut up the eggplant and roast it with the cherry tomatoes, both with olive oil and a bit of salt. If I use some pasta water towards the final step, it adds the additional moisture needed to make up for less olive oil. This is a consistent family favorite.

Ricotta salata substitute is ricotta drained for an hour

Delicious - works fine if the eggplant is larger but cut into cubes.

and who partly cooks the eggplant in the microwave so it absorbs less oil and cook more quickly when you fry up the eggplant. It woes work.

Hi Varda, Visit the link just above you. Quote: Simple to make and yet classy enough for a first course in a serious dinner, Pasta alla Norma was so popular in 19th century Sicily that it was named after Sicilian composer Bellini's hugely successful opera Norma to honor both the dish and the opera, whose perfection matched each other in the eyes of Nino Martoglio, a famous Sicilian theater director. It kept the name. :-)

Perhaps the best pasta I've ever made. Like others, I made a few changes: used 1 lg eggplant and sliced thick and cut into chunks. Roasted it in a separate pan in the same oven with the tomatoes. Used freeze-dried thyme, doubled garlic - will add the garlic earlier next time. No ricotta salata, so used Feta cheese crumbles. I know someone said that didn't work for them, but it was great - nice subtle tang. I added at least the 20 basil leaves -perfection. Truly spectacular!

Works well with a ricotta that has been drained for an hour

I buy ricotta salata at our Italian market in Pittsburgh, THEN when I get it home I turn the oven to 200 and set it in on a tray in the oven to dry it out and develop a golden crust. It takes a while. This is the way they do it in Sicily. Then you grate it at the table over the pasta. This oven dried ricotta salata, tightly wrapped in wax paper or parchment, keeps a long time in the fridge.

I made this as directed, but subbed zucchini for 1/2 the pasta. I used my julienne peeler and cut up a zucchini into linguini-like strips and gave it a 1 minute saute in a touch of olive oil and then blended it with the pasta. I used a little pasta water to thin the sauce. Not a forkful left over.

Queso fresco works well in recipes that call for ricotta salata.

My friend and I were introduced to this dish last spring in Catania. It is named after a famous opera by the same name by Catania's favorite son, Bellini.
Here's a link
http://fxcuisine.com/Default.asp?language=2&Display=84&resolutio...

Right. These are the small eggplants that they term "Asian" where I live.

Needs lots of pasta water to turn it into a sauce, and mashing the eggplant a bit helps everything integrate. I added red pepper flakes and a squeeze of lemon at the end. Super delicious, don’t skimp on the olive oil!

Manouri works really well too

This is a much different pasta alla Norma than I've experienced. When I saw cherry tomatoes, I thought no, but upon reading the treatment, changed my mind. This is very eggplant forward (12 eggplants?). I used two rather small. The result is dark and smoky and much different than the tomatoey dish I've made before, still very delicious. The tomatoes made a lovely sauce.

Grated heirloom tomatoes. Added a couple squirts of Italian tomato paste. Cooked down. In skillet cook slices of eggplant in 2 batches. Let cool a bit and cut up into cubes. In same skillet cooked some chopped garlic and then added the tomatoes and eggplant. Salt, pepper and chopped basil on top.

Amazing recipe. I don't get cooking small quantities of pasta. I used a pound (penne), three baskets of cherry tomatoes, and about 10 of the small japanese eggplant. Toasted 1/2 cup of pine nuts in the oven before doing the tomatoes. Cut the eggplant in chunks and tossed with salt and olive oil, then under the broiler (about 4 in below) 4 minutes, stir, 4 more minutes. Nicely caramelized, as in the NYT caramelized eggplant and swordfish recipe. Used ricotta, drained

Really, really good. Make it.

Used Campari tomatoes quartered; roasted for probably only 90 minutes rather than the 2.5 hours recommended, and they turned out great and were not dry at all. Roasted the eggplant (400F about 20 minutes) purely out of laziness, and I think it turned out fine. Knowingly used regular ricotta (again out of laziness) because that’s what I had. Definitely changed the texture but the flavor was still good!

Loved this easy version of Pasta Norma. With he correct situation, you can't count on the grocery stores to have Ricotta Salata, so I substituted it with queso cotija as was recommended. It worked very nicely.

Full container of tomatoes, 1 lb. /- eggplant, capers. For 1/2 batch.

If using an entire pound of pasta and if substituting grape for cherry tomatoes, use an entire large container. Use 11/2 -2 pounds of eggplant. Cooking times remain the same.

If you have trouble finding ricotta salata, try mexican queso cotija. Very similar taste and texture.

Too dry, not a sauce and drained ricotta did not work.

This dish was ok. Im an avid cook, but cant quite get 2 1/2 hours to roast tomatoes and just wind up with a fairly basic pasta dish. Eggplant works well roasted but skins a bit tough. Tasty but not worth it.

Originally Catania, Sicily, Italy.

Not clear to me how a sauce results from cooked-to-almost-dry tomatoes and eggplant slices. Pasta water appears to be added only to thin an already existent sauce. ???