Pasta Alla Norma

[Little Green Book]

Hi - this is a lovely Sicilian pasta dish, very popular in homes because it's cheap, flavourful and quick to make. Hope you enjoy it.

Recipe: Pasta Alla Norma
Serves 4-5
500gms pasta (large penne preferably)
350gms tomato pasta sauce (home made or bought)
1 small bunch basil
1/2 lrg. aubergine
olive oil
Salty ricotta cheese
Salt

Cook the tomato sauce for 30 minutes (as you want a nice thick reduced consistency) before turning off the heat and adding the finely chopped basil. Meanwhile the aubergine is cut into 2cm think round slices and soaked in cold well salted water for 10 minutes before being rinsed and drained. Next shallow fry the aubergine, drain the oil on kitchen paper and set aside. The pasta is cooked in salted water and drained. Combine the tomato sauce with the drained pasta and serve with a couple of slices of aubergine on top then a generous serving of grated salty ricotta cheese. Hey presto, the flavours are amazing.

[eclecticsynergy]

You can dry fry the eggplant in a nonstick pan; saves calories. It soaks up so much oil otherwise...

Is salty ricotta a firm cheese? The ricotta we get here in the States is much too soft to be grated.

[KarenB]

Apparently there is. I found this was a great explanation and have made my own soft kind in the past.
Who knew? ( not me)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricotta

[K. Slink]

Around here there is a product known as "impastata", ricotta with more of a cream cheese like consistency but without the blue cheese aroma mentioned in the article. It is THE cheese for lasagna, but I've never seen it available in grocery stores, only through food service purveyors.

I wonder why that is?

I started draining my ricotta overnight using a coffee filter in a mesh strainer, amazing how much excess liquid comes out!