Pasta alla Norma

Method

1. Prepare the tomato sauce: score a cross on the bottom of each tomato, remove the core, blanch the tomatoes in boiling salted water (about 30 seconds to 1 minute depending on size and ripeness), then transfer them to ice water. Peel the tomatoes and chop them roughly.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan, add the onion cut into thin slices together with a pinch of salt, and let it soften. Add the tomatoes, cover, and let the sauce cook.
3. Meanwhile, cut the eggplants: some into rounds for the topping, others into cubes.
4. Fry the eggplant pieces in hot oil.
5. When the sauce is ready, pass it through a food mill if you want it smooth, or leave it rustic. Return the sauce to the pan.
6. Bring the pasta water to a boil, add coarse salt, and cook the pasta.
7. Add the fried eggplant cubes to the sauce, season with salt, and add plenty of fresh basil, torn by hand.
8. When the pasta is 2–3 minutes from being done, drain it directly into the pan with the sauce. Add a ladle of pasta cooking water and finish cooking the pasta in the pan, stirring well.
9. Off the heat, finish with a drizzle of olive oil, a little black pepper, and more basil.
10. Plate the pasta, cover it with the fried eggplant rounds, generously grate salted ricotta on top, and finish with more basil.