Healthy Pasta Alla Norma

Pasta alla Norma is a succulent Sicilian pasta dish with eggplant, marinara, and basil. This amazing recipe features roasted eggplant, not fried!

Pasta Alla Norma

We’re going back to Sicily! Pasta alla Norma is a succulent Sicilian pasta dish with eggplant, marinara, and basil. I’m agitated to introduce you to this dish because it’s a fully satisfying submissive dinner. However, you’re going to love pasta alla Norma, If you enjoy eggplant Parmesan. I’m pining a coliseum as I type Almost pasta alla Norma fashions are made with fried eggplant, but this recipe features roasted eggplant. Eggplant absorbs oil painting like a sponger, so this lightens up the dish. Another plus? Riding eggplant is easier and less messy. I further lightened this classic recipe by using more eggplant and lower pasta, so this dish won’t put you to sleep. It’s nice and saucy, just the way I like it.

Pasta Alla Norma

I don’t speak Italian, so I first assumed that “norma” meant eggplant. Not the case! Norma is subsidized because she’s a lady. Or pieces, depending on how you look at it. Then the backstory Pasta alla Norma comes from Catania, a megacity on the eastern seacoast of Sicily. Catania is the birthplace of Vincenzo Bellini, an Italian pieces musician who lived in the early 1800s. One of Bellini’s most notorious operas, Norma, is named after its supereminent character.

Pasta Alla Norma

Pasta alla Norma constituents

Pasta alla Norma is proof that simple constituents can yield spectacular results. This classic Italian dish is especially applicable in late summer or early fall when eggplant is in season. It’s so hearty that I’ll be enjoying it through the downtime.

Marinara Sauce

You really can’t beat my Super Simple Marinara Sauce, which comes together with minimum fuss. It’ll be ready around the time the eggplant is done riding, and yields exactly the quantum of sauce you’ll need for this dish (two mugs). still, you could use a good store-bought marinara, If you’d like to simplify the recipe.

Look for two intermediate eggplants with establishment, candescent skin, and no bruises. They should feel heavy for their size. We won’t bother wreathing the eggplant before riding it’s truly gratuitous with ultra-modern eggplants.

Any quality extra-virgin olive oil painting will do. Use an Italian variety if you want to be as authentic as possible.

Pasta

Use rigatoni, ziti, spaghetti, or any pasta along those lines. You’ll see rigatoni in these prints, but I’ve also really enjoyed spaghetti.

Fresh Basil

Basil livens up this saucy mess. We’ll use a enough generous quantum, about 1/2 mug, or an entire small store-bought vessel. It’s worth it.

Freshly motive black pepper, dried oregano, and red pepper flakes round out the flavors in this dish. However, go light on the red pepper flakes or forget them entirely, If you’re sensitive to spice.

Cheese

True pasta alla Norma is made with aged ricotta salata, which is delicate to find in the United States. For commodities fairly analogous, try equal corridor store-bought ricotta salata and Parmesan. Other advice I’ve set up online includes Grana Padano or mature Pecorino Romano (with or without some atrophied feta). All that said, I don’t suppose you could go wrong with mozzarella. Some fashions also include clumps of ricotta, which would surely be delicious. Still, I believe you’ll still love this dish without cheese.

If you’re following a dairy-free or vegan diet. Or, you could finish your coliseums with a sprinkle of vegan Parmesan and maybe indeed a nugget of vegan sour cream in place of ricotta.

Pasta Alla Norma

How to Make Pasta alla Norma

This recipe is simple enough to pull off on a weeknight if you start an hour before dinnertime. It calls for many simple factors and you’ll get the hang of it snappily. Pour yourself a glass of Italian red wine, maybe a Sangiovese, and make the utmost of it! You’ll find the full recipe below, but then the gist
1) Start the marinara gravy.
That is, shouldering you’re going the manual route. You really won’t accept how snappily my marinara comes together!
2) Prepare and rally the eggplant.
We’re going to follow Ottolenghi’s lead then and use a vegetable bobby to shave off strips of eggplant peel to make it look rather zebra- suchlike. This way, you still get some of the nice texture of the eggplant skin, but you don’t end up with distracting long strips of it in your finished dish (the eggplant tends to fall piecemeal in the sauce, in a good way). also, we’ll slice the eggplant into rounds, brush them with oil painting, and rally them until deeply golden.
3) Cook the pasta in interspersed water.
wreathing the water infuses your pasta with further flavor. Try to flashback to reserve some of the pasta cuisine water before draining it — the bounce in the water helps unite the sauce with the pasta. I generally lade some into a Pyrex glass measuring mug just before draining. However, as I frequently do, no worries, (If you forget.)
4) Stir it all together.
This is when we add the fresh basil, the utmost of the rubbish (reserve some for trim), and some spices. Add a swab to taste, and your mess is ready to serve. Buon appetite.

Pasta Alla Norma

Recipe by K.B MarksCourse: ALL RECIPECuisine: Sicilian
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

20

minutes
Cooking time

40

minutes
Calories

569

kcal
Total time

1

hour 

Pasta alla Norma is a succulent Sicilian pasta dish with eggplant, marinara, and basil.

Ingredients

  • 1 batch of Super Simple Marinara Sauce, or 2 cups (16 ounces) of store-bought marinara

  • 2 medium eggplants (about 2 ¼ pounds total) 

  • ¼ cup + 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

  • ¼ teaspoon fine salt, more to taste

  • 8 ounces rigatoni, ziti or spaghetti

  • ½ cup chopped fresh basil, plus a handful more small basil leaves or torn leaves for garnish 

  • ½ to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano

  • ¾ cup (1.5 ounces) finely grated ricotta salat and/or Parmesan cheese

  • Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark.

Directions

  • If making your marinara Cook the sauce per instructions. However, cover the pot and keep it warm over veritably low heat, if it’s done cuisine before you’re ready to assemble. However, warm it in a pot over medium-low heat while you cook the pasta, if you’re using store- bought marinara. 
  • Meanwhile, preheat the roaster to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with racks in the upper and lower thirds of the roaster. Line two large, rimmed baking wastes with diploma paper for easy remittal.
  • Use a vegetable bobby to shave off long interspersing strips of eggplant peel. The eggplants will look banded like zebras when you’re done. also slice the eggplants into ½- inch thick rounds, discarding the end pieces. 
  • Place the eggplant on the lined baking waste. Encounter the rounds with olive oil painting on both sides. Sprinkle the eggplant with a swab and plenitude of pepper. rally until deeply golden and tender, about 35 to 45 twinkles, flipping after 20 twinkles. Set away. 
  • Bring a large pot of interspersed water to boil and cook the pasta until al dente, according to package directions. Reserve some pasta cuisine water before draining (about ½ mug should be aplenty), also return the pasta to the pot. 
  • When the eggplant is done and the marinara is finished cooking (or warmed through, if using store-bought), gently stir the roasted eggplant into the sauce. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil painting, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes (skip if you don’t like spice, or load it up if you do). Crush the dried oregano between your fritters as you drop it in. 
  • Add the pasta to the sauce with a couple of soupspoons of the reserved pasta cuisine water, and gently stir it in. Add about two-thirds of the cheese, reserving the rest for trim. Season to taste with fresh swab (I generally add ¼ tablespoon more) and black pepper. You can add a bit further of the reserved pasta cuisine water to loosen up the sauce if asked. 
  • Divide the pasta between four coliseums. Sprinkle the remaining rubbish on top of the individual servings, followed by some redundant fresh basil. For added uproariousness, dapple the servings smoothly with olive oil painting.
  • Enjoy! Leftover pasta will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for 4 to 5 days. 

Notes

  • Make it gluten-free This dish would probably be nice with sturdy gluten-free polls, similar as a sludge and quinoa mix. 
  • Make it dairy-free/ vegan Forget the rubbish (this pasta is still veritably nice without it). You could sprinkle individual servings with vegan Parmesan. You might enjoy a nugget of vegan sour cream for some creaminess, too. 
  • Parmesan note Whole Foods 365 and Belgioioso brands offer submissive Parmesan cheese.

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