Italians may complain about the lack of authenticity but this was excellent (better!?) and easy! Pasta alla Norma is a pretty famous dish from Sicily. The origin of it is a bit unclear but it's generally accepted to be made with fried eggplant, tomato sauce, basil, grated ricotta salata and penne or rigatoni. In our kitchen it hasn't been made with packet pasta for many years. Blasphemously, I almost always make it with fresh egg pasta - either fettucine, pappardelle or farfalle - but I follow the rest of the method. Today, however, after a busy day on the farm, I decided to cheat and be creative. I cut up ripe tomatoes and some eggplant, placed them on a baking sheet and drizzled with olive oil and then sprinkled on salt.
These were baked in the oven (185C) using the top element so that the vegetables browned a bit. Meanwhile, I rolled and cut pasta (optional) and brought a pot of salted water to boil. When the veggies looked delicious, I added a few/many cloves of chopped garlic, and returned the sheet to the oven for a couple of minutes. I cooked the pasta, drained it (not too dry - leave a touch of water) and then dumped it on top of the tray. With tongs, I mixed it all together and then spread it back around the tray and returned it to the oven for a few more minutes. I folded some torn basil leaves through before serving with some chilli and grated pecorino.
It was really good and much quicker (with less clean up) than the traditional method.
