Pasta alla Norma: Sicily's Aubergine Pasta and Its Name

Pasta alla Norma is a Sicilian pasta dish of tomato sauce, fried aubergine, basil and grated ricotta salata, a firm salted ricotta. It comes from Catania, on Sicily's east coast, and takes its name from Norma, the opera by Catania-born composer Vincenzo Bellini.

The ingredients are easy to pin down. The story of the name is not, and that is where it gets interesting.

What goes into pasta alla Norma

The classic version is built from a few things a Sicilian kitchen would have to hand:

• tomato sauce, often made with peeled tomatoes cooked in oil and garlic
• aubergine, sliced and fried
• fresh basil
• ricotta salata, grated over the top
• short pasta

In Sicily the dish is also known simply as pasta con le melanzane, pasta with aubergine. The Italian food site Scatti di Gusto lists the usual short shapes as maccheroni, rigatoni, penne and mezzani, and the English-language Wikipedia entry mentions penne first.

As with any dish people care about, there are variations. Scatti di Gusto notes versions with Parmigiano, caciocavallo or Ragusano cheese, and some that add mozzarella, anchovies or capers. In Messina, some cooks use baked ricotta, which is sweeter, in place of the salted kind. There is also ongoing argument about which tomatoes to use, and which aubergine varieties are traditional.

Why is it called Norma?

Vincenzo Bellini was born in Catania, and Norma is his best-known opera. It premiered at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831, and the first night went badly: Bellini himself called it a fiasco, although later performances turned it into a success.

How that opera became attached to a plate of aubergine pasta is a matter of several stories.

The Martoglio story

The most widely repeated version involves Nino Martoglio, a Catanese writer and playwright who lived from 1870 to 1921. The story goes that at a lunch hosted by a woman named Saridda D'Urso, he tasted the dish and declared it "a real Norma", meaning a masterpiece on the level of Bellini's opera. Scatti di Gusto calls this the most likely account.

Wikipedia is more cautious. It flags the anecdote as needing a better source and notes that the dish's name is not recorded until decades after Martoglio's death. So the story may be true, may be a later embellishment, or may describe Martoglio repeating a phrase people already used.

Other explanations

Some read it as Catania standing up for its famous son after the opera's cool first reception on the mainland. A further suggestion is that the lowercase word norma, meaning a standard or rule, simply signalled a dish made the proper way, from ingredients most homes always had: aubergines and tomatoes from the garden and salted ricotta in the larder. None of these theories can be proved, so it is fair to enjoy them as stories.

A dish Catania claims as its own

Whatever the truth about the name, the dish is firmly linked with Catania, and today it is treated as a traditional recipe for the whole of Sicily. Messina has its own version too.

At Bigoli

Our Norma is made with aubergine cooked down into tomato and basil, finished with ricotta. That is our own way of doing it: the classic Catania recipe fries the aubergine and grates ricotta salata over the top, while ours cooks the aubergine into the sauce.

The pasta is extruded on site every morning and comes in six shapes: penne, rigatoni, spaghetti, fusilli, bigoli and fettuccine. Rigatoni or penne will feel closest to Sicily, but any sauce goes on any shape. Choose your sauce, choose your shape and add extras, and it is cooked to order and ready in minutes. Every pasta dish except Dello Chef can be made with our gluten-free penne. Some add-ons, such as meatballs, contain gluten. Not a gluten-free kitchen.

Our chef, Corrado, is Italian, and most of our ingredients are sourced directly from Italy. We are at 123 City Road, by the Old Street roundabout, about a minute's walk from Old Street station.

Frequently asked questions

Where does pasta alla Norma come from?

From Catania in Sicily. It is now regarded as a traditional dish across the island.

Who was Norma?

Norma is the title character of Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 opera. Bellini was born in Catania, and the dish is named in honour of the opera.

What cheese goes on pasta alla Norma?

Traditionally ricotta salata, grated over the top. Some cooks use other cheeses, and in Messina baked ricotta is sometimes used.

What pasta shape is used for pasta alla Norma?

Short shapes such as rigatoni, penne or maccheroni are the usual choice.

Try it for yourself: plan your visit or see our menu.