Pastilla: Morocco's Sweet and Savoury Pie

At a wedding in Fes, the guests have been seated for some time when a large, round, golden pie is carried to each table. Its top is dusted with icing sugar and decorated with lines of cinnamon in a lattice pattern. When the host breaks the crust, steam rises, and with it the fragrance of saffron, ginger, onions and herbs. Inside are layers of spiced meat, soft scrambled eggs and crunchy, sweetened almonds, all wrapped in crisp, paper-thin pastry. It is sweet and savoury at the same time. This is pastilla (also bastilla or bstilla), one of the great dishes of Moroccan cuisine.

A dish for celebrations

Pastilla is not everyday food. It takes time and skill to prepare, and it is traditionally served at weddings, religious festivals, family celebrations and when honoured guests visit. It is usually served as a first course, before the tagines and couscous.

Fes, the old imperial city famous for its refined cuisine, is especially associated with pastilla, though it is made throughout Morocco and in parts of Algeria. Families take pride in their own recipes, passed down through generations.

The pastry: warqa

The secret of pastilla is its pastry, called warqa (meaning "leaf" in Arabic). Warqa is a very thin pastry, similar to filo but made differently. A soft, elastic dough is repeatedly dabbed onto a hot, flat metal pan, leaving a thin film that cooks instantly. The cook peels off each sheet and repeats the process, building up a stack of translucent leaves. Making warqa by hand is a skilled craft; in Moroccan markets, specialist warqa makers sell the sheets fresh. At home, many cooks now use filo pastry as a substitute.

The classic filling: pigeon

The most traditional pastilla is made with pigeon (squab), though chicken is now more common. The filling is built in layers:

1. Spiced meat. The birds are cooked slowly with onions, parsley, coriander, saffron, ginger, cinnamon, pepper and butter or smen (preserved butter). The meat is removed from the bones and shredded.
2. Eggs. The cooking liquid is reduced and eggs are stirred in to make a soft, savoury, lemony custard.
3. Almonds. Blanched almonds are fried and ground with sugar and cinnamon.

The cook lines a round pan with overlapping sheets of warqa, adds the layers of filling, folds the pastry over to seal it, brushes it with butter and bakes it until golden and crisp. Finally, it is dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon.

Seafood pastilla

A popular modern variation is seafood pastilla (pastilla au poisson), filled with fish, prawns, squid and vermicelli noodles, flavoured with chermoula, a marinade of herbs, garlic, lemon and spices. Unlike the classic version, it is not sweet and is not dusted with sugar. It is particularly popular in coastal cities such as Casablanca and Tétouan.

There is also a sweet milk pastilla (pastilla au lait), a dessert of crisp pastry layers with custard and almonds.

Andalusian roots?

Many writers believe pastilla has its roots in the cuisine of al-Andalus, Muslim Spain, whose culture deeply influenced Morocco. After the fall of Granada in 1492 and the expulsions of Muslims and Jews from Spain in the following century, many refugees settled in Moroccan cities such as Fes, Tétouan and Rabat, bringing their culinary traditions. The combination of sweet and savoury flavours, with cinnamon, sugar and almonds, is characteristic of medieval Andalusian and Arab cooking.

Some also note that the name pastilla resembles the Spanish word pastel ("cake" or "pie"). But the exact history of the dish is not documented, and Moroccan cooks have made it their own over centuries.

Moroccan cuisine

Pastilla is one of many dishes that reflect the richness of Moroccan cuisine, which blends Amazigh, Arab, Andalusian, Jewish and sub-Saharan African influences. Other famous dishes include couscous, harira soup and the slow-cooked stews named after the clay pots they are cooked in, described in our story on tagine.

Tips if you try it

• Use filo pastry if you cannot find warqa, and brush each layer generously with butter.
• Chicken thighs give a more succulent filling than breasts.
• Don't skip the cinnamon and sugar on top: the contrast of sweet and savoury is the whole point.
• Serve it hot, and break it open at the table.

Why it matters

Pastilla is a dish of celebration and hospitality, made with patience and care. It carries the history of Morocco's connections with al-Andalus and the wider Mediterranean, and the refinement of the kitchens of Fes. Its unusual combination of sweet and savoury reminds us that great cuisine often comes from bringing different traditions together.

Further reading

• Paula Wolfert, The Food of Morocco (Ecco / HarperCollins, 2011)
• Claudia Roden, Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon (Knopf, 2006)
• Fatéma Hal, Les Saveurs et les Gestes: Cuisines et traditions du Maroc (Stock, 1995)