I hesitate to tell you about the vegetable hiding in this delicious vegan pasta recipe. Can you spot it" It?s purple and it?s polarizing; it?s eggplant. Before you hit the back button, hear me out. The eggplant in this Pasta alla Norma recipe is roasted and caramelized and the texture is totally doable for even the biggest skeptics. Believe me, I?m one of them! Once you get a mouthful of the tender pasta and delicious tomato sauce, the eggplant makes sense. I promise you?re going to love it. Let?s make some Pasta alla Norma!

Pasta alla Norma is a traditional Italian pasta dish (can you tell I?m on an Italian kick lately") with roots in the Sicilian city of Catania. It?s one of those mind blowing recipes that only requires a handful of ingredients, yet packs unbelievable flavor. Because there are only a few key ingredients - eggplant, tomato, basil, and salted ricotta - quality is key. I recommend shopping local and organic when possible. 
Traditional Pasta alla Norma recipes call for salting and pressing the eggplant before cooking to draw out the bitter flavor of the vegetable. That?s not necessary in this recipe, as we'll bake the eggplant instead of frying it, and ...