Pasta Norma: A Delicious Eggplant Spaghetti Sauce

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Pasta alla Norma is a flavorful Sicilian dish that combines tender pasta with a rich, savory tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, and a sprinkle of fresh basil. We added beef and sausage, but it can be adjusted for a vegetarian or vegan diet. The blend of sweet, tangy tomatoes and the deep, earthy flavor creates a perfect balance, while the finishing touch of grated parmesan salty finish. Simply irresistible!

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We never intended to have 50+ pounds of eggplant harvested from our garden this year, and as part of our “waste not, want not” attitude as part of our homesteading, we wanted to make sure we could use as much of it as possible. After searching for recipes, and realizing Eggplant Parmesan wasn’t going to be it, we found a great way to incorporate eggplant into our spaghetti sauce to make “Pasta Norma”. It was the perfect meal that we could easily can, use a large amount of the produce from our garden, and aligned to our homesteading mission.

The fact that this recipe can be adjusted for various diets, vegetarians or meat eaters alike, is just an added bonus. Plus sneaking in some extra vegetables for kids can be another way to help make this meal healthy!

‘Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you.’

Our Garden Decided it Was Year of the Eggplant

I do love being in the south. We get a long growing season where peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant can grow their heart out. Sharing a garden with my dad has been a great learning experience. He has a clay heavy soil versus my raised beds. He has a lot more sun, so I get to play with more varieties that like shade. We also got to share some varieties of plants to see what did better in each garden. We also planted some different things, or at least different quantities of plants.

When we first started planning our garden, it was around the new year. I had just gotten some planting supplies for Christmas presents so I was very excited to get started. One of the first things I planted was eggplant since I knew it took a while to get started. Unfortunately, it was one of the plants I didn’t know how often to fertilize or how often to “pot up”. It did not make it through the spring.

There were a few varieties of plants, tomatillos, eggplant, jalapeños and serranos that either I forgot to start, or didn’t make it to summer. Knowing these were still some plants we wanted to have in the garden, we decided to purchase most of these from our local nursery.

Given that we were low on space in our gardens (I had big dreams!), we modified recommended spacing guidelines. Eggplant in particular, is recommended to be about one plant per square foot. Well given that I was summer and the broccoli and cauliflower died off, we decided to make room for more eggplant.

I don’t want to call it a mistake, but we were not prepared.

We ended up purchasing 8 different eggplant varieties, with most of them being the Black Beauty variety but we did also have a couple of Ichiban and Fairy Tale. Well little did we know, that in our grand state of Texas, that at the date of this publishing, we have harvested 107 eggplant (because there are still more on the plant) weighing in at a whopping 56 pounds and 12 oz.

Did I mention, I was not prepared?

How many recipes can you think of that features eggplant? How many outside of Eggplant Parmesan? Well when one of your biggest harvests ends up being a slightly esoteric vegetable, you start digging.

After looking at a few different recipes, I noticed that eggplant was being primarily used as a meat substitute. It makes sense, it does have a little bit of chewiness to it and doesn’t fall apart when cooking.

One of the big canning and homesteading goal I had this year was to can and preserve enough spaghetti sauce to last us most of the year. Even though we did not have the harvest of tomatoes that we wanted, that was not going to stop us!

That was when I stumbled on a recipe called Pasta Norma.

What is Pasta Norma

Pasta Norma is a classic Sicilian dish that pays homage to the famous Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, whose opera “Norma” inspired its name. The primary ingredients include sautéed eggplant, which provides a hearty texture, along with a rich tomato sauce flavored with garlic, basil, and sometimes a sprinkle of ricotta or Parmesan cheese. With the eggplant offering a meaty texture, this can be a satisfying spaghetti sauce that will make any vegetarian (and vegan if you leave out the cheese) feel included.

Our Pasta Norma Adjustments

Now as much as I loved the original recipes I found online. We enjoy our meat. With my dear husband wanting to lift weights and get his protein, vegetarian was not going to be a good option. The good thing about any vegetarian meal, I as I have learned from my past as one several years ago, is that it’s very easy to add meat rather than just take it away.

I wanted something that had the flavor without taking too much away from the eggplant. We had extra Italian sausage in the freezer and because we knew we wanted to can this sauce later, we also decided to add some ground beef to the mix to limit the amount of fat in the sauce.

We also adjusted the meal to best suit our flavor preferences. We like food that is a little spicy and full of herbs from the garden. This was a great time to use some of the red pepper flakes that we saved from making our hot sauce.

In order to ensure we have enough food to both can and eat dinner, we planned for this meal so we can get about 7 quarts of food, with 6 going in the canner and one for us to eat that evening. We do use meat, which is a little untraditional, but if you want to keep it a purely vegetarian dish, you can double the amount of eggplant and if you want to keep it vegan, omit the parmesan and add your amount of nutritional yeast to give it that umami flavor.

Preparation

Preparing the Eggplant

When we first made Pasta Norma, I took a simple approach and chopped it up. However, after talking to dear husband about the meal, we found out he has a slight sensitivity to nightshades, giving him a little bit of gas. We refined the meal more when developing this recipe and what we do before we cook down the eggplant is peel them all to help ease any stomach issues. We peel all of our eggplant, approximately 3-4 pounds worth and then dice them into about .5″ – 1″ chunks.

While the original Pasta Norma has the eggplant sauteed, we did not have the space for all of that veg on the burner, and I wanted to be able to do as much cooking with as little dishes and stirring as possible. So instead of sautéing, we tossed all of the diced eggplant with about 3 tablespoons of oil, 2 teaspoons of salt and a teaspoon of pepper. We laid the diced eggplant on two cookie sheets lined with either a silicone baking mat or parchment paper for easy cleanup. We roasted them in a 400 degree for 20 minutes and stirred them half way through to ensure there was nothing would burn.

You know it is done roasting when the edges start to turn a beautiful golden brown, they are soft, and some of the moisture has drained out.

Preparing the Vegetables

As much as I love to multitask when I am in the kitchen, it is usually best to have your ingredients ready for you when you are going to cook. Because we are essentially making a marinara to be the base for our Pasta Norma, we will want all of the beautiful flavors in a marinara including onions, garlic, and because we have peppers in our garden, a bell pepper.

I chopped two onions, one bell pepper, and minced 8 cloves of garlic. Put it aside for later.

We will also want to get out our tomato sauce. While fresh is best, if your garden was like mine and it didn’t produce any tomatoes, or if you simply want to make it easy on yourself (which is my other rationale!), you will also want four 28 ounce cans of tomato sauce and two 6 ounce cans of tomato paste.

Cooking the Meat

As part of incorporating meat into the Pasta Norma, we are going to add equal amounts of meat to our eggplant. We use a blend of Italian Sausage, 19 oz of hot, 19 oz of mild or sweet, and one pound of ground beef.

Heat a large stockpot over medium high heat and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the bottom of pot. Once it has been heated, add all of your Italian sausage and beef to the pot. Cook until it starts to brown, or about 7-10 minutes. You can drain off any grease you want at this point.

This is also a great time to add your red pepper flakes to the sauce. If you are worried about the heat of your spaghetti sauce, don’t forget you can always add more later. I would start with adding .5 of a teaspoon of red pepper flakes and if you want more you can build it up to a full teaspoon.

Adding Your Vegetables

Once you have the meat mostly cooked, you can add your onions, garlic, and peppers and thoroughly stir being sure to not let the garlic burn. Stir and cook vegetables for at least 2 minutes until the onions are translucent.

Add your tomato sauce and tomato paste to your stock pot and make sure everything is well combined.

At this point, your eggplant may be done at any point. As soon as it is done, take it out of the oven, and let it cool for at least 5 minutes. Once it has cooled off to handle, add the eggplant to your marinara sauce.

Adding Your Herbs and Spices

Once all of your vegetables in, lower your burner to medium low heat. Nowt is the time we begin to add our herbs and spices that is so characteristic of a delicious sauce. We add four teaspoons of basil, one teaspoon of rosemary, 2 teaspoons of oregano, and 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds. If you do not have all of these spices you can also use your favorite Italian spice blend. Stir them in and let simmer for at least 10 minutes.

If you happen to have any parmesan, to add a special funk, add either 2″ of rind or a 2″ chunk to the sauce. We made one batch without any parmesan and while it was still very good, we noticed that there was just something missing while we ate our meal. If you are wanting to go with a vegan approach, you can try addition some nutritional yeast to your pasta sauce to help give it that umami and savory taste.

If you have already added your eggplant to the marinara sauce, you will want it to simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Once all of the flavors, spices and herbs have had a chance to mingle, you can taste the sauce and adjust it by adding more seasonings or even a teaspoon of sugar to the mix. Because we will be pressure canning it, there are little risks of adding more seasoning to ensure that you have the taste you love!

If you plan on canning this spaghetti sauce, this is a great time to prepare your canner. If you plan on eating some right away, this is also a good time to either make your fresh pasta or prepare some boiling water for dried pasta. You can also remove the parmesan block at this time.

Canning Pasta Norma

Canning Pasta Norma is very similar to canning any other spaghetti sauce with meat. If you don’t already have a pressure canner, I cannot recommend the All American canner enough.

The All American is as the name implies, made in America and the best part is that it is built to last forever. It is very heavy, especially when you add water, but knowing I don’t have to worry about a seal wearing out and it lasting as long as I do is great. If you are looking for something that is not quite as expensive and lighter weight, my grandparents love the Presto Canner because it works on their glass stovetop and is 10 pounds lighter than the All American.

Regardless of what pressure canner you decide to use, you will want to make sure you have 6-7 quart size jars (or 12-14 pint size jars) that are clean and sanitized for canning. I would take out any sauce that you want to eat for the evening and once you have done that, I would add one cup of water to your sauce. While it will thin it out, it will make sure nothing burns in your canner and that there is enough water to transfer the heat to the center of each jar.

Use a ladle and a funnel to fill each jar with a little over an inch of headspace from the top of the jar. Wipe the rim of each jar with a little bit of vinegar on a towel to ensure there is no grease or residue that might cause the lid to no seal. Place your lids and tighten the rings down to with your fingertips to ensure the lids will be held in place.

Fill the canner with the manufacture’s recommendation of water, add a splash of vinegar if you have hard water, and add your jars to the pressure canner. Close the canner and bring up the temperature to a boil and let it vent for 10 minutes. Once it has vented apply a weight or ensure it has a chance to build pressure to at least 10 lbs or more based on your elevation. Cook for at least 75 minutes in quart jars or 60 minutes for pint size jars.

Serving and Garnish

Once it has cooked, turn off the heat and let it naturally depressurize. Remove the jars and place in an area where it can rest undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Remove the rings and wash jars to ensure there is a good seal. You can tell if it is a good seal by being able carefully lift up the jar by the lid without it coming off. Label with the name and date and store in a cool dry area.

Pasta Norma is a delicious sauce to go over spaghetti pasta, ziti, or rigatoni. You do not want a pasta that will fall apart underneath the weight of the sauce. Serve the sauce over the pasta and top with any combination of fresh basil, red pepper flakes, and freshly grated parmesan.

If you decided not to can it, I would recommend quartering this recipe so you can ensure that nothing goes to waste! Stored in the fridge it can last 3-5 days. Otherwise this can be a great recipe that can be a show stoper for vegetarians and vegans alike.

If you are interested in other ideas for homesteading, be sure to checkout our other recipes like Easy Charro Beans Recipe for Tex-Mex Lovers, The Best Homemade Apple Butter Recipe for the Holidays, and to help you save money in the kitchen, consider reading Budget-Friendly Homesteading: Save More in the Kitchen: Part 1

Have you ever had too much of a harvest you had to get creative with it? Is this recipe something you might try? What is your favorite pasta sauce? Leave a comment below!