First course

Pasta alla Norma

Pasta with fried aubergine, tomato, basil and salted ricotta

Fried aubergine, tomato sauce, basil and a snowfall of salted ricotta: Catania’s signature dish is named after the opera by Bellini, a native of the city.

Four ingredients of the Sicilian summer: aubergine fried in slices or cubes, fresh tomato sauce, basil and grated salted sheep’s ricotta on top, standing in for aged cheese. The pasta is short or long depending on the household: maccheroni, rigatoni or spaghetti.

The name comes from Norma, the opera that Vincenzo Bellini, born in Catania in 1801, premiered at La Scala in 1831. According to the most repeated story, it was the Catania playwright Nino Martoglio who, tasting the dish, exclaimed that it was «a real Norma», that is, a masterpiece. No document confirms it, but in Catania the story has been told this way for a century.

It is the dish of the city, served in every trattoria from the centre to the coast, and by extension of the whole island. The proper version allows no shortcuts: the aubergine must be fried, not grilled, and the ricotta must be the salted, aged kind, not fresh ricotta.

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Street food PAT

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Street food PAT

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