Pasta alla norma

I would recommend to use short pasta (rigatoni or penne would be best). 


Ingredients: (4 people)

• 4 cups basic tomato sauce, jarred or homemade
• 1 medium aubergine, peeled and cut into cubes
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 medium cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 500 short pasta (rigatoni, penne or even casarecce) 
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh basil
• 6 tablespoons ricotta cheese (if you can find riccotta salata it would be best, otherwise even pecorino could do the trick...)

Place aubergine cubes in colander and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of salt. Let the aubergine drain 15 minutes. Pat dry, removing excess salt.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice; cook until tomatoes begin to soften, about 15 minutes. Remove tomato sauce from heat.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in another heavy large skillet over high heat. Working in 3 batches and adding 1 tablespoon olive oil for each batch, cook aubergine until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer the aubergine to the tomato sauce in skillet.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking water. Add cooking water to sauce; bring to boil. Add pasta and basil to sauce and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer pasta to bowl; top with ricotta salata and serve.