Italian Eggplant Pasta Sauce with Penne – Pasta alla Norma

This Sicilian eggplant pasta sauce (traditionally served with penne pasta) is an homage to the beautiful Italian opera by Vincenzo Bellini: La Norma!

The Norma Pasta (Pasta alla Norma) is is made with fried eggplant and is famously topped with salted ricotta—a hard ricotta cheese that can be grated and is available in most Italian or fine cheese shops.

Pasta alla Norma recipe!

Watch the Video Recipe!

Learn how to make this Sicilian Eggplant Pasta Sauce with Penne in this video recipe, filmed in Italy:

Pasta alla Norma on our YouTube Channel

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

More video recipes? Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (it’s FREE) and click the bell to get notifications when we release a new video recipe!


Tips for Making Pasta alla Norma

Traditionally, the Sicilian eggplant pasta sauce is made with fresh tomatoes. Don’t want to make the tomato sauce from scratch? You can follow the instructions to make the sauce fresh instead with the same quantity of whole canned tomatoes. If you are using canned whole tomatoes instead of fresh, cut the tomatoes open and remove the seeds.

Or, use 1 cup (250 ml) of the sweetest tomato purée you can find. Simmer the purée for 20 minutes with the sautéed garlic and fresh basil. There is no need to reduce the sauce.

Making the Fresh Tomato Sauce

Tomato sauce for Norma Pasta (Pasta alla Norma) made with fresh tomatoes!

Prepare the Tomatoes

The Norma Pasta sauce is made with…

  • grape (or cherry) tomatoes
  • roma (or piccadilly) tomatoes
  • vine tomatoes

If possible, we recommend using fresh whole tomatoes to make the sauce for this dish. To remove the skins of the vine and roma tomatoes, score both sides of each tomato or make an ‘X’ across the bottom. To score, just make a shallow cut with a knife. 

score tomatoes

Bring a pot of unsalted water to a boil. Add the tomatoes for a minute—two at most.

boiling tomatoes

Then transfer the tomatoes to a bath of cold water and peel the tomatoes. 

Quick cold bath after boiling…
peel the tomatoes

Cut the tomatoes in quarters and set them aside. Remove the seeds now —or later with a strainer.

chopping the tomatoes

Cut the grape (or cherry) tomatoes in half lengthwise. Set them aside as well.

Make the Tomato Sauce

Cover the bottom of a large skillet with several tablespoons of olive oil. Over low heat, sauté the garlic. When the garlic begins to turn color, add all of the tomatoes.

making the sauce

Add a pinch of salt and 2 leaves of fresh basil.  Give the tomatoes a stir. Then cover and simmer the tomatoes for 30 minutes.

Add the basil…

After the 30 minutes, blend everything (garlic, oil, tomatoes, basil) to a smooth puree. Use an immersion blender if you have one. 

Blend the tomatoes!
Strain the sauce.

Strain the sauce to remove any seeds or skin that remain. Simmer the sauce again until it has reduced by half. Salt to taste and set the sauce aside. 

Fresh Tomato Sauce, ready to use!

Eggplant Matters

A bitter eggplant will ruin an otherwise delicious dish. Be sure to taste your eggplant before cooking with it, to be sure it’s not too bitter. To play safe, you can use a potato peeler to peel the skin off the eggplants—this will help reduce bitterness. 

There are many methods (that vary in effectiveness) for removing the bitter taste from eggplants. It’s better to avoid the problem altogether by choosing a reliably sweet variety.

In Italy today, bright purple round eggplants are most often used due to their lack of bitterness. If you can’t find these eggplants—sometimes called ‘Italian eggplants’ in groceries—substitute with Japanese eggplants. We recommend avoiding the oblong, dark purple eggplants.

A few examples of the types of eggplants used in Italy that tend to be less bitter. Look for bright purple (solid purple or mixed with white). Sometimes you can find so-called ‘Italian eggplants’ in the grocery—those are good choices!

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This means at no extra cost to you, PIATTO may earn a small commission if you click the links and make a qualifying purchase.

Print

Sicilian Eggplant Pasta Sauce with Penne – Pasta alla Norma

This vegetarian pasta dish is a Sicilian classic. The sauce is made with tomatoes, fried eggplant and famously topped with salted ricotta—a hard ricotta cheese that can be grated and is available in most Italian or fine cheese shops.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian, Mediterranean
Diet Vegetarian
Keyword pasta
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  • 1 cup tomato purée
  • 5 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 leaves basil
  • 1 pinch fine salt or to taste
  • 2 lb eggplant bright round purple or 'japanese' eggplants are best- avoid dark oblong
  • oil for frying as needed; peanut or similar
  • 11 oz rigatoni pasta or another tube pasta
  • 30 g hard salted ricotta cheese or to taste (very salty!)

Instructions

Make the Tomato Sauce

  • Cover the bottom of a large skillet with several tablespoons of olive oil. Over low heat, sauté the garlic. When the garlic begins to turn color, add the tomato purée. (See the article for instructions on making the tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes!
  • Add a pinch of salt and 2 leaves of fresh basil.  Cover and simmer the tomatoes for 30 minutes.
  • After the 30 minutes, blend everything (garlic, oil, tomatoes, basil) to a smooth puree. Use an immersion blender if you have one. Salt to taste and set the sauce aside. 

Fry the Eggplant

  • Dice the eggplants.
  • Deep fry the diced eggplant at 300° F (150° C) for about 4 minutes. 
  • Remove the eggplant and transfer them to an absorbent towel.

Finish with Pasta

  • Cook the tube pasta to ‘al dente’ (in salted boiling water) according to package instructions.  
  • In the meantime, heat the tomato sauce (along with 1/4 cup of filtered water) in a large skillet. 
  • Add the diced fried eggplant to the tomato sauce. Stir to combine and simmer until the pasta is cooked.
  • Add the drained, cooked pasta to the warm tomato sauce and stir to combine. 
  • Top with a sprinkle of grated salted ricotta cheese. Buon appetito!

Video


About the author

Classic recipes from Italy and beyond. Traditional Italian Cooking and Mediterranean Diet recipes!

PIATTO™ Recipes bring traditional Italian food recipes to your table with our tested, step-by-step recipes and videos. You'll find the best Italian recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Always tested, always delicious.

Leave a Comment

Recipe Rating




Exit mobile version