- Warqa (thin pastry sheets, like filo but softer)
- Pigeon or chicken, poached and shredded
- Toasted almonds, eggs, parsley and coriander
- Cinnamon, powdered sugar, and a little orange-blossom water
Pastilla (Bastilla)
A slice of chicken pastilla. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Pastilla is Morocco's great sweet-savoury pie: shredded pigeon (or chicken) and almonds folded into layers of crisp warqa pastry, dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. It came with the Andalusian refugees in the 16th century and became Fès's signature celebration dish.
The contrast is the point: crisp pastry, tender meat, toasted almonds, and the cinnamon-sugar top. It is served at weddings and feast days, cut like a cake.
Key ingredients
Where to try it
- Fès: the classic pigeon pastilla in the medina's old restaurants.
- Seafood pastilla in coastal cities like Essaouira and Casablanca.
- Wedding caterers and feast-day tables everywhere.