Pasta alla Norma

My first attempt at one of Pierluigi's recipes went over pretty well. I had Florian and Bella over after a day of sightseeing to try Pasta alla Norma, which is a tomato and eggplant sauce with fresh orrechiette (little ears) pasta.

Ingredients:

butter - two table spoons
basil - 8 full leaves
eggplant - two mediu-size
tomato puree - 1 cup
ricotta or some other mild cheese to grate on top
orecchiette or strascinati (both have the same shape by the latter are considerably larger, if you use them don't chop the eggplant as small) - 500g - one box
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

1. Chop the eggplant into cubes, larger if you're using strascinati pasta, smaller if orecchiette. Fry the cubes with a little bit of olive oil and ground black peppper until they just start to brown. Take out of pan and set aside.

2. Melt the butter and then add basil leaves and cook about 5-6 minutes on medium heat until they get slightly crispy.

3. Add about 3/4 of the eggplant cubes to the pan and 3/4 of the cup of tomato puree. Cook on high heat for a 3-4 minutes and then turn to low and cook for another 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Add water as necessary to keep the sauce a bit liquidy.

4. Cook the pasta (very al dente) and when you take it out to strain it, don't shake it out at all and then add it immediately to the pan with the eggplant. If you can save the pasta water and add that to the pan as you need it rather than regular tap water it would be ideal.

5. Cook all everything together for about ten minutes on medium heat, making sure there is enough water in the pan to keep the sauce liquidy.

6. Add the last 1/4 of the eggplant and the rest of the tomato sauce and simmer for five more minutes.

7. Serve immediately with grated cheese and fresh basil on top.

Serves 4