Tagliatelle alla Norma

Hi! Do you ask yourself what to cook today? How about something Italian? Or more precisely a specialty from Sicily?

Pasta alla norma is a classic pasta dish in Sicilian cuisine. It's made with tomatoes, fried eggplant, grated ricotta cheese, and basil. It is supposedly named for the opera „Norma“ by Vincenzo Bellini.

What do we need:

150g tagliatelle or spaghetti

1 eggplant

200 g ricotta

2 garlic cloves

400 peeled tomatoes (canned)

4 tbsp olive oil

salt

pepper

How do we proceed?

Wash the eggplant well, dry and cut the stalk. Then cut lengthwise in half and cut into thin slices.

Arrange the slices in layers in a sieve, sprinkle with coarse salt and press down. Place a plate over them. Add a weight over the plate let the eggplant so for at least an hour.

In the meantime we will prepare the tomato sauce.

Heat in n a pan the olive oil and fry the peeled and sliced ​​garlic cloves briefly.

Add the tomatoes and simmer over low heat for 20-30 minutes.. Add salt and pepper.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente according to package instructions.

After an hour, the eggplant will be washed with cold water and carefully patted dry with kitchen paper. Fry the eggplant slices on both sides until golden brown, than remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.

Cut the eggplant into stripes and add them to the tomato sauce. Stir well.

Drain the pasta and add them to the sauce. Stir once again and our meal is done.

Put them onto a plate and sprinkle with Ricotta.

Enjoy your meal.

And as a bonus I will show you some pictures from Sicily.