Recipe Pasta Alla Norma

 I learned to make Pasta alla Norma from my brother in law Vicente. His parents are from the region of southern Italy called Calabria. 

The following recipe is based loosely on his version. The difference is that he makes and bottles his own tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes.  When he makes the sauce he adds his own seasonings salt, pepper and oregano.  When I make it I use canned (store bought) crushed tomatoes and I add the seasonings. There are many recipes on line which you can google to see the various amounts of seasonings and you can adjust to your tastes.   This recipe below that I found on line is close to what Vicente taught me. I noted what we did differently. 

 

 

Servings:

4 servings

Yield:

serves 4

 

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed

• 3/4 pound small Italian or Japanese eggplants (2 to 3 small eggplants), trimmed, split in half lengthwise, and cut into 3/8-inch half moons (see notes). Note we cut our eggplant in one inch cubes. It makes no difference and you can use regular eggplants. Use 1 large one for this recipe.

• Kosher salt

• 3 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon) (Note we like lots of garlic so 5-6 large ones for us and I slivered them) 

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano (again use the amounts you like)

• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste (we don't use this but it's up to you) 

• 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand into 1/2-inch chunks (I used one large can crushed tomatoes and Vicente uses his own home made sauce)

• 1 pound dry ridged, tubular pasta such as rigatoni or penne rigate

• Handful fresh small basil leaves, or roughly torn large leaves

• 2 ounces aged ricotta salata, finely grated (this may be hard to find so pecorino romano is what we used. If you can find the ricotta salata all the better)

   

  Directions:  Fry the eggplant in olive oil slowly til tender. (You can also oven bake if you prefer).  You can choose to peel or not peel the eggplant as you like. Also some presalt the eggplant for 30 minutes then rinse and dry before frying. Up to you.  I remove fried eggplant and then saute garlic in the oil then add the eggplant back in after garlic is fragrant. You can do the opposite and fry garlic first so the oil is infused with garlic flavor. Then add all the ingredients except pasta , basil and cheese.  I cooked the sauce for awhile. Vicente doesn't have to cook his long because his sauce has been precooked.  I want my flavors to blend so I cooked for a long while. Up to you.   After the sauce is cooked to your liking make the pasta and serve with fresh basil and cheese on top.