"Pasta alla Norma"

This dish was created in Catania to honour the Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma. The anecdote says that one day during a lunch (they were all artists) on the table arrived a spaghetti dish served with “ricotta salata infornata” (baked, salted “ricotta”; it is a Sicilian, typical soft cheese similar to the cottage cheese), tomato sauce, fried aubergines and basil. In the end one of the participants, inspired by the flavous and by the good smells of the dish, exclaimed:”Ah! This is Norma!”. It is known that in Catania, Bellini and “Norma” are synonyms with all the Sublime things. The dish, although is knowing all over the isle, must be attributed to the catanese tradition for the peculiar use of the salt baked ricotta

INGREDIENTS

For 4 servings:
500 gr spaghetti
300 gr tomato sauce
1 Kg black aubergines
150 gr salted ricotta
100 gr fresh ricotta
extra-virgin olive oil
8 whole basil leaves
salt and pepper.

Peel the aubergines, dice them. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and leave them this way for 1 hour. Warm some oil in a pan, strain the aubergines and brown them. Put them to dry on a paper napkin to eliminate the excess of oil. In the meanwhile boil some water in a pan, put in it the spaghetti and salt. As soon as they are cooked, strain them, arrange them in the serving dish and add the fresh “ricotta”, the minced basil and the tomato sauce. Mix all and divide the spaghetti in the plates. Add the fried aubergines. Grate a little of salted ricotta and garnish the dishes with the basil leaves. Serve them.