Pasta with caramelized eggplant and rich tomato sauce (Pasta alla Norma) from The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (page 701) by J. Kenji López-Alt

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Notes about this recipe

  • Pandan on April 11, 2024

    I made this recipe twice. First time I used “regular” thick eggplants, second I got the Japanese version. Mine were super slim and thin skinned, so I just cut them in rounds. When frying, they partly fell apart and later kind of disintegrated in the sauce. I actually liked the version with the „regular“ eggplant much better! But maybe Japanese eggplants are something different over here in Germany :D All in all really nice recipe. Sounds really simple, but actually tastes waaaay better than pasta with store bought tomato sauce and just some fried eggplants thrown in.

  • Globegal on August 07, 2020

    Liked this. Good recipe to use home-grown produce, esp bumper crop of tomatoes.

  • Charlotte_vandenberg on December 27, 2017

    It’s a nice recipe, not too difficult, but also not the best pasta alla Norma I’ve eaten. The penne was finished, so I made spaghetti instead.

  • Astrid5555 on December 10, 2016

    One of the better Pasta alla Norma recipes outside of Italy. Letting the eggplant caramelize to a deep brown until completey tender makes a big difference. No need to re-season the eggplant slices with salt after cooking since they are quite salty after having tossed them with salt beforhand to draw out the water.

  • joanhuguet on July 31, 2016

    A delicious summer classic. The marinara recipe provided here, which uses half olive oil and half butter to round out the harsh notes of canned tomatoes, will be my new go-to recipe for easy tomato sauce.

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