Pasta alla Norma — rigatoni with golden aubergines, tomato, basil and salted sheep's cheese

dairy Italian · regular · 50 min, including 40 hands-on

Pan-fried aubergines, a basil tomato sauce and well-coated rigatoni, finished with freshly crumbled salted sheep's cheese: Sicily's contrast of melting aubergine and salty cheese. In Catania it is ricotta salata; in Ramat Gan, oven-dried sheep's milk feta takes its place.

Ingredients for two

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Pat the feta block dry, crumble roughly onto a small dish and bake for 10 minutes to dry and firm it without colouring. Take out and cool slightly on the worktop. Meanwhile, cut the unpeeled aubergines into 2.5–3 cm cubes, without salting to draw out water, as modern aubergines are no longer bitter. Dry with kitchen paper. Crush the tomatoes in their juice, crush both garlic cloves and pick the basil leaves.
2. Heat 10 g oil in the 28 cm sauté pan over a medium-low heat. Cook the garlic for 1 minute until pale golden, then add the tomatoes and 2 g salt. Simmer uncovered for 12–15 minutes, stirring every 4 minutes, until a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a trail that closes slowly. Taste: the sauce should be well seasoned before adding cheese. Tear in half the basil, turn off the heat and cover. The sauce can wait; pasta water will loosen it again in step 5.
3. As soon as the garlic is pale golden and the tomatoes are in the sauté pan, start heating 2.5 litres of water in the covered 4-litre saucepan; add coarse salt only once boiling. Heat 35 g oil in the 28 cm frying pan over a medium-high heat until an aubergine cube sizzles immediately on contact. Add half the cubes in a single layer. Leave untouched for the first minute, then turn every 2 minutes for 8–10 minutes. Lower to medium if the sides darken before the centres soften. Transfer to kitchen paper and immediately season while hot with half the 3 g salt. Repeat with the remaining 35 g oil and aubergines, salting in the same way. Each cube should be golden brown on several sides and meltingly tender inside.
4. Once the sauce is ready and the aubergines browned, the water should be boiling. Add 25 g coarse salt, 10 g per litre, and the rigatoni. Cook for 2 minutes less than the packet time, usually 10 minutes. Meanwhile, return the sauce to a low heat and fold in two-thirds of the aubergines for 2 minutes, reserving the rest for the top.
5. Reserve 200 g pasta water, then drain the rigatoni without rinsing. Add to the sauté pan with 80 g reserved water and toss over a medium heat for 2 minutes, lifting the pasta to avoid crushing the aubergines. Add another spoonful of water if the sauce tightens; it should cling to the rigatoni, with their centres still slightly firm. Taste and adjust the salt before adding cheese.
6. Turn off the heat and divide between two warm plates. Top with the reserved aubergines, shower over the crumbled dried feta, a pioggia, and tear over the remaining basil. Serve immediately, before the pasta absorbs all the sauce.

On your plate

Cooking tips

The original uses ricotta salata. If you find it kosher, use 80 g, 40 g per person, coarsely grated just before serving in a shower, a pioggia, instead of feta. Another substitute that keeps the Sicilian approach of grated hard cheese is 60 g kosher pecorino romano or Parmesan; these are saltier and stronger, so use less. In every case, adjust the sauce's salt at the end after tasting the cheese. Choose sheep's milk feta rather than cow's milk, as it recalls ricotta salata. Leave the aubergine skin on to hold the cubes together during finishing. You can brown the aubergines 2 hours ahead and leave at room temperature.

Equipment : 28 cm sauté pan, 28 cm frying pan, 4-litre saucepan, colander, small ovenproof dish, kitchen paper

Catania's Sicilian tradition: pasta alla Norma with golden aubergines, tomato, basil and ricotta salata, using a cheese available kosher in Israel.