Sicilian Swordfish Pasta Sauce Ragu With Eggplant Recipe

This swordfish pasta recipe is a delicious summer lunch made with swordfish tomato sauce and fried eggplants. It is a typical dish from Catania in Sicily, where eggplants and swordfish are local delicacies. Swordfish is an oily fish with fatty acids similar to bluefin tuna, with chunky meat without bones. It is easy to make, and as with all seafood dishes, it doesn't require a long cooking time.

Jump to:

• Swordfish meat
• Ingredients
• Choosing the eggplants
• Instructions
• Top tips
• Recipes with eggplants you might also like
• 📋 Pasta with Swordfish Ragu and Eggplants

Pasta with swordfish and fried eggplants is a specialty from Sicily around Catania and Messina.

The fresh tomatoes, the basil, and the eggplants are all locally grown around the Etna slope, and the swordfish fished in the Messina Strait.

This Sicilian swordfish pasta sauce is the pasta alla Norma taken to a higher level.

Fried eggplants are mixed with tomato sauce and basil but instead of ricotta salata cheese, swordfish stew is added.

It is a quick, complete lunch common during the hot summer months in southern Italy.

Other quick seafood pasta dishes are: spaghetti alle vongole, Pasta with black ink, pasta with shrimp and zucchini and shrimp tomato sauce pasta.

Recipe	Regional origin	Historic context
Pasta alla Norma	Sicily, Catania	Combines Arab influence (eggplants introduced during the 9th–10th centuries) with swordfish, a staple from ancient fishing traditions in the Strait of Messina.

Swordfish meat

For this easy swordfish recipe, we use the meat from the neck of the swordfish around the top fin.

It is tastier and costs half the price of the most common swordfish steak.

I like to use different parts of the swordfish and throw away only the minimum. Eating most of the meat is a way of honoring the death of any animal.

Swordfish ragu is not cooked long like a beef ragu, as fish should never be overcooked.

It is much faster to make than regular ragu and is lighter and perfect for a summer lunch.

If you want to know more about how to buy and cook fresh swordfish, don't miss the article: How to buy and cook wild fresh swordfish meat.

Other baked swordfish recipes are baked swordfish recipes with breadcrumbs, and oven baked swordfish in foil

Note: you can make this same recipe with tuna or salmon.

Ingredients

All the flavors of Sicily in this recipe are:

• Fresh ripe tomatoes: San Marzano tomatoes are compact, contain less water, and have fewer seeds. Perfect for making a fresh tomato sauce. You can also use grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes.
• Eggplants: I use long eggplants and ensure they are not bulky. If the base is too wide, they are likelier to have too many seeds.
• Pasta: use short tubular pasta with stripes like Maccheroni rigati or Rigatoni. This shape helps absorb the sauce and create the perfect eggplant bite. If you cannot find Maccheroni, use other short pasta like Penne or Ziti. Chunky homemade pasta like Busiate or Fileja is also a good option.
• Fresh basil: you can also use fresh parsley
• Salt
• Fresh garlic: do not use garlic powder
• Extra virgin olive oil
• White wine: optional

See recipe card for quantities

Choosing the eggplants

Bitter eggplants full of seeds can ruin your final dish.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to tell if an eggplant is full of seeds, so I always buy my eggplants in grocery shops I trust.

If the eggplants have too many seeds, I just throw them away and never buy vegetables from that shop again.

I take my eggplants seriously, so don't mess with my eggplants!

My mother always sliced the eggplants, seasoned them with abundant salt, laid them inside a strainer, and put something heavy on top to let the acid juices drain out of the eggplant.

I no longer do that as I found the eggplants are not as acidic as they used to be.

If you think they are, let them drain in salt for 2 hours before using them.

Instructions

Frying the eggplants

3. Drain them on kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil

Cook the swordfish

5. Remove skin and bones and break it into bite-size pieces and put it aside

DO NOT CLEAN THE PAN AFTER YOU HAVE COOKED THE FISH

Peel the tomatoes

If you do not want the skin of the tomatoes, here is how to peel them:

1. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes
2. Leave the tomatoes in hot water for 5 minutes
3. Take them out with a ladle
4. Cut with a pointed knife
5. The entire peel will come off easily

Making the sauce

Putting it all together

Hint: Now you can deglaze with white wine.

If you want to follow the Italian rules for cooking pasta, you can read the recipe: 38 tips on how to cook pasta like an Italian

Top tips

• This recipe is best made with meat from the neck and around the top fin.
• Use San Marzano tomatoes and long eggplants
• Once the swordfish is slightly cooked, removing the bones and cartilage from the flesh will be easy.
• DO NOT CLEAN THE PAN AFTER YOU HAVE COOKED THE FISH. Use the same pan for cooking the tomatoes to absorb the flavors of the swordfish
• If you think the eggplants can be too acidic, cut them into slices and let them drain in salt for 2 hours before frying them.
• Pasta should always be al dente. Cook 1 minute less than what is written on the package instructions

Recipes with eggplants you might also like

For more eggplant recipes, check out the category: Mediterranean Vegetables & Fruits Also check the recipes below:

• Baked Eggplant Pasta Anelletti
• Grilled zucchini eggplants and peppers
• Aubergine caviar
• Sicilian Caponata Recipe
• Deep Fried Eggplant Balls
• Easy Ratatouille Recipe Baked
• Healthy Eggplant Parmesan
• Vegetarian Rice Timbale with Grilled Eggplants Recipe
• Eggplant Milanese
• Pizza with Fresh Vegetables
• Traditional Pasta Alla Norma with Eggplants

For more appetizers with eggplants, check out the story: 15 Authentic Italian Eggplant Recipes

For seafood ideas for the Feast of Seven Fishes, check out this Web Story.

If you are making this pasta with swordfish ragu and eggplants, leave your comment below I would like to hear from you. You can find more delicious ideas if you FOLLOW ME on Facebook, YouTube, or sign up to my newsletter.