There’s nothing normal about alla Norma, a Sicilian way of serving pasta smothered in an eggplant tomato sauce. If you enjoy ratatouille, imam bayildi, eggplant Parmesan, or any other eggplant-and-tomato dish, you probably understand that they form a special combination. Although the resemblance may not be obvious at first, the two fruits are close relatives, sharing not only the same plant family but also the same genus—which means they are closer than they look to being the same species. When you put them together and apply heat, magic happens in the pan. Pasta alla Norma is named after an opera by the Sicilian composer Vincenzo Bellini, and christened by the poet Nino Martoglio, also of Sicily, who tried a bite and declared it to be the “Norma” of pasta. The best, in other words. It didn’t hurt that the soprano for whom Bellini wrote the opera had the fortunate name …