Pasta with Norma sauce is the signature dish of the cuisine of the city of Catania, Sicily. The origin of this dish is not certain. There are at least two versions of the story of this dish which are considered most plausible. According to some, the recipe was named after the Sicilian playwright Nino Martoglio, who, when confronted with a dish of pasta thus seasoned, exclaimed ‘It’s a Norma!’, indicating its supreme goodness and comparing it to Vincenzo Bellini’s famous opera, despite the fact that several decades had passed since its debut. According to others, the recipe would have been perfected, reinterpreted and fine-tuned on the basis of traditional cuisine by a Sicilian chef precisely on the occasion of the celebrations for the great Catanese composer’s new opera, destined to become one of his greatest successes in a short time despite a troubled and far from encouraging premiere at La Scala in Milan.