PASTA AND AUBERGINE

(Pasta con le Melanzane)

Serves 6

2 medium aubergines

Salt

300 ml/10 fl oz or more olive oil

2 garlic cloves

900 g/2 lb very ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped,

450 ml/16 fl oz tomato sauce, variation II

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

675 g/1½ lb spaghetti or penne rigate

125 g/4 oz salted ricotta, grated

Large bunch fresh basil, leaves or coarsely chopped

Wash the aubergines and cut them, unpeeled, into 12 mm/½ inch slices (Palermo style) or into finger-size sticks (more common in the east). Sprinkle with abundant salt and allow to drain for a couple of hours. Rinse well, drain, pat dry, and then fry in 225 ml/8 fl oz of olive oil, or more, until golden brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels.

Sauté the garlic cloves and the chopped tomatoes, together with a very little salt and the pepper, in 5 tablespoons of oil for about 15 minutes, or prepare the 450 ml/16 fl oz of tomato sauce.

Cook the pasta in abundant boiling salted water until al dente, then drain.

Toss it in a serving bowl with half the ricotta, then the sauce and the basil. Put the fried aubergine on top, and sprinkle with the rest of the ricotta.

Note: Cheaper vegetable oils are often used in place of olive oil for frying aubergines, both in this and in other Sicilian dishes. I consider such substitution to be a decadent practice that vastly alters the results. But then I have my own olive grove. Those less fortunate may want to try a combination of 50 percent olive oil and 50 percent corn, peanut, or other vegetable oil.

Salted ricotta belongs above all to the summer; from October to May ricotta is eaten fresh, both as a cheese and as the basis of Sicilian confectionery. We have already met sweetened ricotta mixed with cuccìa, and while the renowned cannoli and the cassate siciliane with their ricotta cream fillings belong not to the classical but to a later period in Sicilian history, this is the place for a recipe that uses sugar and ricotta in a different fashion. This is a recipe I inherited from my mother-in-law, and it may have in its rustic simplicity some kinship to classical sweets.