The pasta dish called "pasta 'ncaciata" is a typical Sicilian dish that is originally from Messina. This amazing dish is named after the way it is cooked: 'ncaciata style, aka, in burning embers.
So how do you make this pasta dish? First you boil pasta to the point that it is more than al dente. Then, you mix the pasta with just a bit of the following ingredients: ground meat, salame, hard boiled eggs, fried eggplant, fresh caciocavallo, basil, salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, and pecorino.
In the past, before ovens were a common household appliance, people used to cook this pasta dish directly in their fires' ashes. That's where the name comes from " 'ncaciata;" it's the preparation method. "U ncaçio" means "in the embers" in the Messinese dialect.
Today, pasta 'ncaciata is still cooked, in the traditional style, during a specific event called "la festa della Pasta 'ncaciata." This event is every mid-August in Novara di Sicilia, a little village in the province of Messina. This annual tradition is a beautiful moment when the old ways of doing this is experienced and this pasta is cooked on the burning embers, as it used to be done, 'ncasciata style! Young and old Sicilians, along with travelers and visitors relive the atmosphere of a Sicily of centuries ago.