L'Italo-Americano

LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano Milanese thought initially. And a success was to be also the pasta dish created in its honor. The second version of pasta alla Norma's origins is again tied to Catania and to the world of the performing arts. It involves two of the most significant figures of Catania's early 20th century theatre, Angelo Musco and Nino Martoglio. The two shared a long artistic part- nership which was equally strong off stage, where they w o u l d o f t e n s p e n d t i m e t o g e t h e r a n d w i t h e a c h other's families. On one of t h e s e o c c a s i o n s , i n 1 9 2 0 , Martoglio and Musco were guests of the latter's sister, Anna, at her home in Via E t n e a , i n C a t a n i a . A t t h e table with them were Anna's h u s b a n d G i o v a n n i Pandolfini, and his nephews Turi and Janu, along with J a n u ' s w i f e , S a r i d d a D'Urso, who had prepared, for the occasion, a pasta dish with tomato sauce and fried eggplant. Martoglio loved it s o m u c h h e e x c l a i m e d : " Signora Saridda, chista è 'na vera Norma!," hinting at the success of Bellini's work. In fact, it's likely that the expression "alla Norma" to denote something done very well was already popular in t o w n , c o n s i d e r i n g h o w famous the operatic work had been for the previous 50 years. The recipe in itself, as we said, is very simple and so are the ingredients, but there are some rules Catanese peo- ple follow: first of all, pasta should always be short (so, no to spaghetti alla Norma, even if you can find recipes f o r t h e m a r o u n d ) , n o r t o cheese other than ricotta salata. If we want to be truly faithful to the original, we shouldn't try to make this pasta lighter by grilling the eggplant instead of frying it, even though many do so. The only instance where even purists leave space to the cook's own preference is how to cut the eggplant: the original recipe calls for it to be sliced, but you can also cube it. Pasta alla Norma (from La Cucina Italiana) Ingredients for 4 people: 2 l b s o f S a n M a r z a n o tomatoes (you can use other varieties provided they are very flavorsome) 3 1/2 cups ( about 350 gr) of short pasta, like "sedani" or "rigatoni" Fresh basil Extra virgin olive oil Salt 1 lbs of eggplant 1 cup of grated ricotta salata (you can usually find ricotta salata at Italian delis or online. If you can't source it, go for good parmigiano) Fresh basil Half onion Frying oil Chop the onion coarsely and sauté it in a pan with about 3 tbs of extra virgin olive oil. C h o p t h e t o m a t o e s i n large pieces. Prepare a small bunch of fresh basil leaves and add it to the onions and then, after a minute, add also the chop- ped tomatoes, some salt and l e t s i m m e r f o r a b o u t 2 5 minutes. A couple of minu- tes before turning off the heat, remove the basil from the pan. Liquidize the sauce with a vegetable mill and set aside. It's time to take care of eggplants! Wash them, make 3-4 mm (0.10/0.15 in) thick slices and fry them for 1 to 2 minutes in abundant, hot oil. Set them aside to drain on some kitchen paper. Cook your pasta, adding salt to the water when it starts boiling and then the pasta. Once it's cooked (follow the instruction on the packa- ge), add the tomatosauce you prepared and drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil. Plate the pasta and top it with the fried eggplant and the ricotta salata (or parmi- giano). La Cucina Italiana sugge- sts the addition, if you fancy s o , o f a s a u t é d o r o v e n baked mix of cherry toma- t o e s a n d f r e s h , o r g a n i c lemon rinds. The ingredients of pasta alla Norma are just a few: pasta, tomatoes, eggplant and ricotta salata (dried ricotta) (Photo: Mehriban Aliyeva) Continued from page 26

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