Classic Pasta Alla Norma
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1small onion, diced
- Salt and pepper
- 2garlic cloves, peeled
- Pinch of crushed red pepper
- 12basil leaves, plus a few basil sprigs for garnish
- 4cups peeled, chopped tomatoes with juice, fresh or canned
- 3 or 4small eggplants (about 2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1pound pasta, such as penne, rigatoncini or spaghetti
- 1cup coarsely grated ricotta salata
- ¼cup toasted bread crumbs, preferably homemade
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
465 calories; 11 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 76 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 16 grams protein; 912 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Make a quick tomato sauce: Put 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Stir in garlic, red pepper and basil leaves and cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, stir and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and let sauce simmer gently for 20 minutes, until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside. (Sauce may be prepared up to 2 days in advance.)
- Step 3
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Turn heat to low and cover pot until it’s time to cook the pasta.
- Step 4
Put a wide cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Add 4 tablespoons olive oil to coat surface of pan. When oil is wavy, test by adding a cube of eggplant. It should begin to sizzle and brown immediately. Fill the pan with a single layer of eggplant cubes. Turn eggplant with a spatula or tongs and brown nicely on all sides. Lower heat as necessary to maintain an even temperature; if the pan is too hot, the eggplant will burn.
- Step 5
Remove cooked eggplant to a plate and continue to fry remaining eggplant in batches, adding more oil as necessary. Season finished eggplant with salt and pepper. (Alternatively, roast the eggplant on a baking sheet at 400 degrees, lightly drizzled with oil, until cooked and nicely browned, about 20 minutes.)
- Step 6
To assemble and serve, boil pasta until al dente, leaving it a little firmer than normal. Bring the tomato sauce to a simmer. Add eggplant to sauce and gently stir to combine. Reserve a cup of pasta cooking water, then drain pasta and add to sauce. Using 2 wooden spoons or tongs, toss pasta and sauce, and let cook 1 minute more. Thin sauce if necessary with a little pasta cooking water.
- Step 7
Transfer to a warmed wide pasta bowl. Sprinkle with grated ricotta salata and bread crumbs. Garnish with torn or whole basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
topacho
It is essential NOT to add the eggplants to the sauce before tossing the pasta, otherwise the eggplant flavor will be lost. Instead, first toss the pasta in the tomato sauce and then add the eggplants at the very last moment. In Sicily, some places serve the eggplants separately at the table, only to be added just before eating the pasta. The basil is also best if added raw at the end (before the eggplants), as it loses much flavor when cooked.
Bruce
Heat your oil to the proper temperature BEFORE you add the eggplant and it will not be absorbed.
LBK
Eggplant absorbs oil like a sponge. Why not cook the sliced eggplant under the broiler, and then cut into cubes. Much healthier and easier.
agrigento Lodico
Mama Mia
Put all the garlic cloves on my plate if no one else wants them
Anne (Quartararo ) Scott-Chambers
Im blessed to be of Sicilian heritage: my grandparents were Sicilian immigrants... they shared their language , food & spirit with me.
re: Pasta "Norma": in today's context, id suggest a lighter touch w/ tomatoes: skip the sauce & simply toss fresh tomatoes into hot drained pasta.. proceed otherwise.
Angela Quartararo would SO approve!
Christa
I roasted my eggplant--much easier and healthier with no loss of flavor, especially when you use fresh eggplant and ripe tomatoes from the farmstand and basil picked from the garden. David Tanis never steers me wrong, and his recipes are always a delight to make, simple yet sophisticated and elegant. A summertime delight.
Charles Michener
Salt water just after it reaches a boil. (Salted water takes longer to boil.) For more complex-flavored, less oily eggplant, roast until skin begins to blister, drain, dice and finish in tomato sauce (leaving skin on). For crisper eggplant, dip cubes in egg wash, toss with panko and parmesan and dried oregano, and bake until golden. Toss cooked pasta with tomato sauce and top with eggplant. The eggplant's skin is its most nutritious part.
Ron
My Sicilian friend (who makes this dish often) tells me no one in Sicily calls it Pasta alla Norma. The just call it pasta with eggplant! Like "penne con melanzane fritte".
Zoltan
You can also use fresh ricotta, it’s even more delicious and creamy. I recommend to try with fresh ricotta.
andryuschka
A recipe that presents proper technique for use of garlic in basic tomato sauce! Thank you! The only instruction missing is to remove and discard the cloves when the sauce is done. Your loved ones and other humans you come across will appreciate!
charlotte
The simple tomato sauce was delicious. Why so good? don't know. The whole simmered garlic, amount of basil leaves, or was it the higher quality canned tomatoes. Lots of eggplant, and am considering only using 1 lb and not 2 lb. But then, we ate the entire amount, with gusto. Definitely again. Panko lightly browned in olive oil for the crumbs - thanks to a comment below.
Jojo,sr
I roasted the eggplant in the oven and my family ate it out of the sheet pan and I had to start all over again.
dena
.....
excellent
used 1 large and 1 small can of chopped tomatoes
brown panko in olive oil
Ryan
Used one large can of whole peeled tomatoes (that I then crushed) and the sauce was perfectly tomato-y. Roasting the eggplant in the oven is definitely the way to go. So easy. I used fresh, shredded mozzarella and it was amazing. One of the best pastas I've ever made.
Sissy
I read somewhere that pasta a la Norma is a misnomer for pasta "normale" since eggplant is so pervasive in Sicilian cooking.
MW in PNW
Delicious! I only swapped soft ricotta for Ricotta Salada (which I could not find in our grocery stores). Also, I toasted the Panko in olive oil, as suggested in the comments. Will definitely make this again.
Eamon
this will not take you thirty minutes unless you have 8 arms and incredible dexterity... couldn't find ricotta salata in stores, so I substituted it with a dollop of regular ricotta, which worked fine. I roasted my eggplant because I didn't want the hassle of monitoring it on the stove along with the sauce, the pasta, and the breadcrumbs. The finished project was good, but the eggplant felt more like a textural add, and I wasn't picking up the taste. I used canned tomatoes.
Ty Fieri 🔥
Is the flavor in the room with us? This felt bland. And I don’t know what Emerils are working in the NYT kitchens, but my stove can’t fit a pot for the pasta, a skillet for the eggplant, and a pan for the sauce - I should have baked the eggplant.
jmk
Like the best Italian: simple but good. I followed the recipe but used dried basil except for fresh and two small cans of diced tomatoes. Follow the comment tips, e.g. take out the garlic after cooking sauce, make sure the oil is the right temp so it doesn't act like a sponge, add eggplant to sauce toward the end. I used Romano, which worked surprisingly well.
Sarah
Good with feta!
Dave
Followed the recipe, but brushed the eggplant slices with oil, seasoned them, then did them on the grill. Delicious.
ZT
I want to reiterate another poster's note: to wit, add the eggplant only at the last minute prior to serving (after tossing the pasta in the sauce).
Mary Robinson
I thought this dish was very delicious and so easy to make.
Jeff Maxwell
I did my eggplant in an air fryer (20 minutes at 400) and it turned out perfectly.
emily
Added one good glug of red wine when adding the tomatoes and it gave the sauce a wonderful depth. Then added one good glug to my glass!
Barbara
Allow 40 mins. Start eggplant first, and keep pasta water hot. Rao's or other sturdy fusilli take ~16 minutes at 2500' elevation. With five cups of unpeeled tomatoes, the garlic, onion, and basil, the sauce was so flavorful. Two pounds of eggplant added to the tomatoes made four ample servings. Cooked 1/2 pasta and will boil another batch later in the week for this wonderfully fresh, savory sauce. Bellweather ricotta slathers on in soft pillows. Def. add crunchy whole grain breadcrumbs.
Ava
A tip from a friend who is a fabulous cook....Best way to prepare eggplant for cooking is to slice, then salt both sides then put in a colander and cover it with paper towel so it will sweat out extra water. May take 5-8 hours or even overnight. Pat those little slices dry and when oil is at the right temperature throw them in!!
Franklin Zieve
Eggplant needs to be in smaller pieces or, preferably, falling apart.
GC
Hi! Recommend lots of olive oil. No need to blot out, minimise, etc. Olive oil is delicious!!! Used lots while cooking the eggplant in a pan in two batches. Saved it all and mixed into the final dish along with the eggplant, with fresh tomatoes and then the pasta. Was luscious, lots of flavoured olive oil, very soft eggplant, fresh tomatoes plus some tomato paste for depth. Served over orecchiette with grated parmesan cheese at the end, a great summer meal! Enjoy!!
ManhattanTransfer
It’s possible to pan roast eggplant in a well seasoned cast iron skillet with almost no oil (1/2 tsp) loosely covered with a lid Eggplant soaks up almost any oil you add in and becomes soggy. This way the outside roasts, inside steams a bit. It doesn’t turn into a soggy oily mess. This way if you put everything together at the end and don’t mix the eggplant in the sauce ahead of the pasta, the eggplant keeps its shape and texture really nicely.
Private notes are only visible to you.
Advertisement
