🍆 Pasta alla Norma

Pasta alla Norma is a first course from the city of Catania in Sicily: pasta with tomato sauce, fried aubergines (eggplant), basil leaves and grated salted ricotta (ricotta salata).

VisitSicily, the tourism site of the Sicilian Region, gives for four people 400 g of penne rigate or macaroni, 500 ml of tomato sauce, one or two aubergines, salted ricotta for grating, extra virgin olive oil, a clove of garlic and basil. The sliced aubergines are salted and left to drain for half an hour; the garlic is fried in olive oil, the tomato purée and a little salt are added and cooked for about 15 minutes, then the basil; the aubergines are fried in plenty of oil, cut into strips and added to the sauce, which is tossed with the cooked pasta and topped with grated salted ricotta. The Accademia Italiana della Cucina describes the dish as plain spaghetti with tomato sauce topped with fried aubergine slices, basil and plenty of grated salted ricotta.

Both sources tie the name to Bellini's opera Norma, without a firm origin. VisitSicily cites several local stories, among them Nino Martoglio's exclamation of delight at the taste; the Accademia says the dish was reportedly named by the poet Nino Martoglio in 1920 and notes the Catania saying 'pari na Norma', meaning something as magnificent as Bellini's opera.