Bellini's Norma

I promised you two pasta stunners and this, gentle reader, is the second. This dish is supposedly named after the character Norma in Vincenzo Bellini’s opera of the same name. A rather dubious honour for the woman in question (Giulia Grisi), seeing how it’s a dish consisting mainly of plump purple fruit. However, if she ever tasted it she’d have known it for the compliment it truly is.

Pasta Alla Norma is a Sicilian dish and it is the one I ordered more than any other when I was in Sicily last year. I had it in posh restaurants, where it looked stunningly beautiful, and in small hole-in-the-wall type places where it looked messy and glorious. But looks aside, like all Italian cooking, it’s about the flavour of a few simple but great ingredients that just work well together. And believe me, Norma definitely hits the high notes. Start by dicing two aubergines, placing them in a colander and sprinkling them royally with salt. Place the colander in the sink and leave to drain for half an hour or so. This will make the aubergines more tender and remove the slight bitterness of the fruit. Rinse well in cold water, drain and pat dry. Fry the cubes in some butter and oil until golden brown and remove from the pan. Add some more oil and fry a finely chopped red onion and two garlic cloves until soft and slightly caramelized. Season with salt and pepper and return the aubergine to the pan. Toss together and add a jar of good tomato sauce with basil (like Barilla) and a can of chopped tomatoes with basil. Bring to the boil, clamp on a lid and after a few minutes turn off the heat. Anything with tomatoes, whether it’s soup or sauce, is always better if you let it stand for a while. Cook some penne in salted water, again adding some cooking liquid to the sauce when you bring it back to the boil. Combine the pasta with the sauce and tear up some buffalo mozzarella to stir through. Sprinkle some fresh basil leaves on top and grate over some ricotta, or if you can’t find that, some parmesan.