PASTA · SICILY

Pasta alla Norma: Sicily’s great vegetarian pasta.

Name: Pasta alla Norma: Sicily’s great vegetarian pasta.
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Sicilian
Ingredients: 400 g rigatoni or penne; 2 large aubergine; 400 g san marzano tomatoes; 100 g ricotta salata (to grate); 1 bunch basil; 2 cloves garlic; olive oil (for frying); salt

APRIL 25, 2026· 3 MIN READ · ★★★★☆ 4.8

Fried aubergine, tomato, ricotta salata, basil. Named after Bellini's opera. Invented in Catania. One of the very few pasta dishes where the cheese is ricotta — specifically the salted, aged kind.

INGREDIENTS

What you actually need.

Serves

RIGATONI OR PENNE 400 g
AUBERGINE 2 large
SAN MARZANO TOMATOES 400 g
RICOTTA SALATA — to grate 100 g
BASIL 1 bunch
GARLIC 2 cloves
OLIVE OIL — for frying for frying
SALT —

NOTA BENE

Ricotta salata is not ricotta. It has been salted, pressed and aged for at least 90 days. If you cannot find it, aged pecorino works.

METHOD

6 steps, and one will define the dish.

Salt the aubergine.

Cubed, salt generously, rest in a colander 30 minutes. Pat completely dry.

Fry until golden.

In abundant olive oil at 180°C. Drain on paper. Do not crowd the pan.

Make the tomato base.

Garlic in olive oil, 60 seconds. Hand-crushed tomatoes, simmer 15 minutes.

Cook pasta al dente.

Reserve pasta water.

Combine.

Pasta in the sauce with pasta water. Fold in most of the aubergine.

Finish.

Remaining aubergine on top, torn basil, grated ricotta salata.

WHY IT WORKS — THE SCIENCE

The aubergine must be fried, not roasted.

Pasta alla Norma was named in honour of Vincenzo Bellini’s opera — the story goes that a Catanese food critic, tasting the dish for the first time, compared it to the opera as the highest compliment he could give. Whether the story is true is not important. The pasta is worth the name.

It is Sicilian, it is vegetarian, and it is built on one ingredient that most non-Sicilian cooks get wrong: the aubergine. The aubergine must be fried, not roasted, not grilled, not air-fried. The crisp exterior and the soft, oily interior that only deep or shallow frying produces is essential to the texture of the finished dish.

Ricotta salata — not fresh ricotta

Ricotta salata is aged, salted, and pressed. It grates like a hard cheese. It tastes nothing like fresh ricotta. In Pasta alla Norma it provides a sharp, salty counterpoint to the sweet tomato and the rich aubergine. Fresh ricotta, if used, turns the dish sweet and wet. Do not substitute.

“In Catania we eat Norma at least once a week. The discussion about whose version is correct has been going on for a hundred years. Everyone is wrong except your own mother.”— CICCIO SULTANO, DUOMO RESTAURANT, RAGUSA

The aubergine preparation

Salt the cubed aubergine and rest it in a colander for at least 30 minutes. This draws out the bitter liquid and, more importantly, the moisture — dry aubergine absorbs less oil when frying. Pat it completely dry before it enters the oil. Wet aubergine in hot oil steams instead of fries, and the texture difference is the difference between the dish working and not working.