Ottolenghi's Pasta alla Norma

Ingredients

• 450 g eggplants
• 8 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tin of tomatoes (400 g)
• 1 pinch of chilli powder
• 5 g fresh oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 150 g spaghetti
• 40 g Grana Padano or Pecorino Romano cheese
• 10 g fresh basil
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pinch of pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C fan. Wash the eggplants and peel them with a peeler to create a pattern of zebra stripes. Then cut them crosswise into slices about 1 cm thick.
2. Season the sliced eggplants with 5 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and pepper and mix together. Spread the slices on a baking tray and bake in the oven for about half an hour.
3. In the meantime, peel and finely dice the garlic. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan and fry the garlic over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Deglaze with the canned tomatoes and season with chilli powder, oregano, a little sugar, salt, and pepper. Reduce the heat, cover the pan, and leave to thicken for about 10 minutes.
4. While the eggplants are baking and the sauce is reducing, cook the spaghetti in salted water according to the instructions on the packet.
5. Add the baked eggplants to the tomato sauce. Drain the spaghetti, reserving some of the cooking water. Mix the spaghetti with the sauce. Grate the cheese and mix about two-thirds of it into the sauce.
6. Serve in deep plates, sprinkling the remaining third of the cheese and the basil over the plates.