Today's Home-cooked Lunch: Pasta alla Norma
(view this entry on my blog)
...or rather, in the style of Pasta alla Norma, which is a yummy combination of eggplants, tomatoes, basil and ricotta salata.
I couldn't get any ricotta salata from my neighbourhood store, or any ordinary ricotta for that matter, so I had to substitute that with Parmesan cheese. Alas, neither could I find any fresh basil leaves there, plus, my attempt to grow my own basil a month ago failed miserably! (insert sulking face. boo.) I am starting to believe that I am totally rubbish with plants - no tinge of green at all on my fingers. Anyways, instead of some fresh fragrant basil leaves, I had no choice but to go with good ol' McCormick's dried basil.
I wholeheartedly agree with Pr San that we need a Cold Storage, Village Grocer or an equivalent here in our neighbourhood! Sheesh!
I actually threw in some cocktail sausages for some variety, sliced in strips to match the length and width of the eggplants. I used these recipes at Epicurious and NYTime's Bitten Blog as a reference. Instead of frying, I heeded the advice of some reviewers to bake the eggplant and sausages instead. The sausages turned out beautiful, but the eggplant was a tad bit too dry. I should have been more generous with the olive oil.
Fresh tomatoes were used instead of canned diced tomatoes, because once again, I couldn't find that in my local store. In fact, I was so tempted to just use the jar of ready-made Prego's Garlic Parmesan pasta sauce in my fridge, but finally decided to make the paste from scratch. It's nice to see exactly what goes inside your food. I can already imagine how much preservatives, salt and sugar are used in instant pasta sauces! Yikes! Though the recipes I referred to did not use any sugar, I had to throw in a spoonful because my tomato paste was too sour.
Anyway, here's my very crude personalized recipe of the Pasta alla Norma:
Serves two.Ingredients: spinach fettucini (yum!)
1 large eggplant (whee!)
Some cocktail sausages (optional)
3 tomatoes, diced
3 cloves of garlic, pressed and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
some basil leaves (if you can't get fresh leaves, dried ones will do)
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
some sugar to taste
freshly ground black pepper
chilli flakes (the recipe said red pepper flakes. i didn't have that so I threw in half a packet of Domino's chilli flakes, haha :D I'll give this a miss the next time though, coz I don't like the spicy tinge)
parmesan cheeseMethod:1. Slice the eggplant and sausages in any shape you fancy. Wash, salt the eggplant slices and set aside in a colander for 10-20 mins. Rinse eggplant, pat dry with paper towel. Brush olive oil over them and bake eggplant and sausages in a preheated oven (175-200 C) for about 10-15 minutes. 2. Cook the spinach fettucini according to packet instructions til it's al dente.3. Dice the tomatoes.4. Sauté chopped garlic and onion in olive oil til it lightly colours, then throw in the diced tomatoes (and juices). Add lotsa basil ^_^ Season with salt, pepper, chilli flakes, black pepper, s ugar. How much of each? - Use your brains and taste buds. Cook and simmer about 10-15 mins, til it thickens. 5. Pour pasta into the sauce pan, add parmesan and mix well. Done!
I consider it quite a lot of work and effort *sweat* but maybe that's because I'm such a novice. But it was worth it!
Oh by the way, if you look at the photo of the sliced eggplant and sausages, you'll see a glimpse of this really lovely Wooden Pepper Mill made from walnut wood, given by a very dear friend as a Christmas gift last year. I remembered opening the gift and thinking "WTH... What kinda Christmas gift is this?! Didn't you know that I hate black pepper?!" but you had good foresight, and I appreciate the gift now :) You rock!! ♥
Also, forgive the quality of the photos, my DSLR is suffering from ADHD and has lost its ability to focus properly. Sad :(
Dinner tonight: Baked 1/4 chicken with a little leftover Pasta alla Norma! (yes, baked chicken again coz it's easy)
