Bastilla, also spelled pastilla and known in Arabic as bastila, is a meat or seafood pie of Maghrebi cuisine made with warqa dough, a pastry similar to filo, and is a specialty of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, where a regional version is called malsouka. Its fillings typically include broth and spices along with squab, chicken, fish or offal, and emigrants have more recently carried the dish to France, Israel and North America. The name is thought to come from the Spanish word pastilla, meaning either pill or small pastry, reflecting a shift from p to b that is common when Spanish words enter Arabic.
Facts
Disputed
Origin Period, From (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountDebated among historians: Anny Gaul traces a strong resemblance to the stuffing in 13th-century Andalusi cookbooks (the value recorded here, taken as a representative mid-13th-century year). Idriss Bouhlila and Ahmed al-Rahouni instead argue an Ottoman origin, reaching northern Morocco through Algerian migration after 1830, and Gil Marks attributes it to Sephardic Jews who brought it to Morocco before filo later replaced the Andalusi-style pastry. No single origin year is agreed among these accounts. Classification
Dietary SuitabilitySourced to the subject's own accountContains Meat or Poultry 1 Origin RegionSourced to the subject's own accountMorocco (also Algeria and Tunisia) 1 FAQs
Why does bastilla taste both sweet and savory?
It mixes a spiced meat filling with sugared almonds and a dusting of powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Bastilla pairs a slow-cooked meat filling with sweetness on purpose. The meat is cooked with onions, saffron, ginger and cinnamon, then layered with fried almonds that are sweetened with sugar and scented with orange blossom water, all wrapped in thin warqa pastry. After baking it is traditionally sprinkled with powdered sugar and a cross of cinnamon, so the sweet and the savory arrive in the same bite.
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In Cuisine
Source Bastilla (Wikipedia)
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Uses Ingredient
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In the Other Atlases
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Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Bastilla (Wikipedia)tier 3
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Bastilla (Wikipedia)tier 3
Sources
1. Bastilla (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
It is a specialty of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, where its variation is known as malsouka.
History section, paragraph 1
The historian Anny Gaul attests to recipes that bear "a strong resemblance to the stuffing that goes inside modern-day bastila" in 13th century Andalusi cookbooks
Introduction
Pastilla (Arabic: بسطيلة, romanized: basṭīla, also called a bastilla or a North African pie) is a meat or seafood pie in Maghrebi cuisine made with warqa dough (ورقة), which is similar to filo.
- In Cuisine: Algerian Cuisine, Wikipedia category list
- In Cuisine: Middle Eastern Cuisine, Wikipedia category list
- In Cuisine: Moroccan Cuisine, Wikipedia category list
- In Cuisine: North African Cuisine, Wikipedia category list
View the Source Bastilla (Wikipedia)
- Uses Ingredient: Chicken, Infobox main_ingredient field: Warka dough, broth, spices; squab, chicken, fish or offal
- Uses Ingredient: Squab, Infobox main_ingredient field: Warka dough, broth, spices; squab, chicken, fish or offal
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