Italian

Pasta alla Norma

Name: Pasta alla Norma
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 12 oz rigatoni; 2 eggplant; 2 cups tomato passata; 2 garlic cloves; 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil; 1/2 cup ricotta salata; 8 leaves fresh basil; 1/2 tsp salt

Giulia @giulia_torino

Pasta alla Norma is Italian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.

40 min Medium Vegetarian Pescatarian

Ingredients

Serves

The quantities follow this count.

12 oz rigatoni
2 eggplant
2 cups tomato passata
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup ricotta salata
8 leaves fresh basil
1/2 tsp salt

How to cook it

Cut the eggplant into cubes.
Warm half the olive oil in a wide skillet and fry the eggplant in batches until golden and soft, adding more oil as needed, about 10 minutes total; set aside.
In the same skillet, warm the remaining oil and cook the garlic 1 minute, then add the tomato passata and salt and simmer 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the rigatoni until al dente.
Return the eggplant to the sauce and drain the pasta into it, tossing to coat.
Top with grated ricotta salata and torn basil, then serve hot.

Watch how to cook Pasta alla Norma

Someone making it start to finish, so you can see what the steps look like.

PASTA ALLA NORMA - Ricetta Originale Siciliana - Chef Max Mariola Play the video

Serve it with

A Italian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Pasta alla Norma, read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.

The cooked vegetable
- Cicoria Ripassata (Sauteed Bitter Greens)
  
  20 min
Something cool and fresh
- Insalata Caprese (Caprese Salad)
  
  10 min

Safe at your table

Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Pasta alla Norma carries dairy and gluten. It is free of the remaining 8 allergens on that list.

Every tracked allergen in Pasta alla Norma
Allergen	In this dish	Cook this instead
Peanuts	No
Tree nuts	No
Dairy	Yes	Chicken Cacciatore
Gluten	Yes	Butternut Squash Risotto
Shellfish	No
Eggs	No
Soy	No
Fish	No
Sesame	No
Coconut	No

These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.

What it brings to the plate

Estimated, per serving

Calories: 530 kcal
Protein: 14 g
Carbs: 70 g
Fat: 22 g
Fiber: 6 g
Sugar: 9 g
Sodium: 440 mg
Saturated fat: 3 g

Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.

When to cook it

Pasta alla Norma takes about 40 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. It is at its best in summer and the fall, which is when what goes into it is worth buying.