Food & Dining
Food

• Food:  A Taste of Sicily

• Good Eats:  Summer Bar-B-Q's {cont.}

• Links to Food & Dining Info On-Line:  Some Like It Hot {cont.}

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A Taste of Sicily
   Pasta alla Norma

Pasta alla Norma

ED. NOTE:  We mentioned last month that Mamma Louise was under the weather and was unable to offer one of her great recipes from Mamma Louise's Kitchen.  To those who asked after her, know that she's doing just fine now.  But, as she told us some time back, she wouldn't be writing in our June issue for happier reasons.  ...  She has "too many weddings to go to."  Trust us, though.  We tasted this month's offering from our newest staff member, Aaron Wisniewski, when he returned from Sicily and the dish is wonderful.  ...
     You may also want to read Aaron's write-up of his visit to Sicily, "Taormina and More," as well as some beautiful photos he took there, in this month's Travel ... Here & There.

No matter how exotic a restaurant you might travel to in Sicily, it's pretty likely there is one dish you will always find on the menu -- a dish characteristic of typical Sicilian food, but as far from typical taste as you can imagine.  That dish is pasta all norma.

It's debatable where the "norma" comes from, but pasta alla norma seems to mean "your average 'normal' pasta dish."   It is a mild but flavorful combination of homemade tomato sauce, sweet, ripe eggplant, fresh, fragrant basil, and firm hearty pasta.  It's a perfect meal, whether to impress your spouse with a fancy romantic dinner, or to feed an entire family no matter how big.

In this recipe we will be using spaghetti, but penne or fettuccine both work fine.

Here's what you’ll need:

FOR THE SAUCE:

• 4-5 VERY ripe plum tomatoes
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh or minced garlic
• a couple of pinches of salt
• 1 tablespoon of oregano
• olive olive (preferably extra virgin)
• 1 small can of tomato paste ( if desired to thicken sauce)

FOR THE PASTA:

• 1-2 pounds (depending on how hungry you are) of spaghetti (or other pasta)
• 1 large ripe eggplant
• 1 cup of fresh basil
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1/2 pound of fresh mozzarella (this is a personal touch I added.  I think it adds
  a nice flavor to the dish)

START WITH THE SAUCE:

It takes about 2 hours to make a nice smooth thick sauce, but one can be made in 30-45 minutes if you don’t mind it being a little bit chunky (it will still taste great).

1. Start by dropping the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water fro about 2 minutes until the skins split.
2. Remove the tomatoes and starting with the split, gently peel off the skin making sure to catch any tomato juice that leaks in a bowl.
3. After your tomatoes are peeled and chopped into quarters (or eighths if they can hold together), drop them into a large saucepan lightly coated with oil and also add the tomato paste if desired.  Add the salt, garlic, oregano, and any other seasons you is Cover and cook on med-hi heat for 10-15 minutes stirring frequently.
4. After the tomatoes start to stew a little, you can reduce the heat, but keep the cover on until the sauce has reached your desired consistency.  (Note:  The chunks of tomato should be gone and the sauce should be smooth but not watery.  If the sauce is watery, uncover and cook on low heat until sauce thickens).

Ok, your done with the sauce for now, but don’t forget to keep stirring it every so often.

START THE PASTA:

1. Fill a large pot with water and place on high heat.
2. Take a large pan and pour a generous amount of olive oil in bottom to cook the eggplant. Heat the oil on a high flame.  (Note:  To extract the bitter juices from the eggplant, slice width-wise into 3/4 inch slices, lay out on some newspaper and sprinkle with coarse salt 30 minutes prior to cooking them. The bitter juice will bead on top of the eggplant and can be easily wiped off).
3. Cook each slice of eggplant for 1 1/2 minutes in the hot oil, then lay on absorbing paper to drain.  The eggplant skins my be removed if you desire.
4. By now the water for the pasta should be boiling.  Place the pasta in to cook.  While the pasta is cooking, cut the drained eggplants into pieces resembling sugar cubes and gently add them to the tomato sauce.
5. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain and quickly return to pot.  Add tomato sauce, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella if desired, toss, and portion onto plates.
6. Garnish and lightly sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese.

Boun appettito!

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Lou Colasanti, Editor & Laura Wisniewski, Associate Editor
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