Direction Catania, in Sicily, where Simone Zanoni , the starred chef of the George V , takes us to discover a typical dish that smells like summer, the sun and the holidays. On the occasion of the upcoming release of his book Pasta, pasta, pasta ( Michel Lafon ), a compendium of the best Italian pasta recipes, he gives us his version of pasta alla Norma .
Simple and veggie with ricotta, aubergines, tomatoes and basil, i paccheri alla Norma is a must for pasta lovers and lovers of Mediterranean savoir-vivre. Pronti?
Paccheri alla Norma
Chef's tip: Also add some grated Parmesan when serving.
The list of good ingredients for 4 people
150 g salted ricotta or recipe
Espelette pepper
2 eggplants
gross sel
400 g of paccheri
350 g of tomato pulp
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Fresh basilic
Fleur de sel, peppercorns
Recipe
Cut the aubergines lengthwise into not too thin slices, salt them with coarse salt and let them drain for 2 hours. Then rinse them and dry them.
Put water to boil in a large saucepan and salt it.
Brown the halved garlic cloves in a large round-bottomed skillet with 1 tbsp. tablespoons of olive oil, then add the tomato pulp and cook for ten minutes, salt very little (the ricotta salata and eggplant that will come in this sauce are salty enough).
Dice the well desalted aubergines and roast them in a large non-stick pan, with very little oil – they must not be fried – then drain them on paper towel and set aside.
Immerse the paccheri in boiling water and, halfway through the cooking time indicated on the package, remove them with a spider and finish cooking in the tomato sauce.
2 minutes from the end, add the eggplants. If the sauce becomes too thick, thin it out with a little of the pasta cooking water.
Off the heat, add a generous amount of ricotta salata and chopped basil leaves. Mix gently.
Arrange and sprinkle with ricotta salata cut into thin strips and small basil leaves.
And There you go !
