Poultry pastilla ornately dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
History
The name of the pie comes from the Spanish word pastilla, meaning either "pill" or "small pastry", with a change of p to b common in Arabic.[7] 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, such as ibn Razīn al-Tujībī's فضالة الخوان في طيبات الطعام والألوانfuḍālat al-k̲iwān fī ṭayyibāti ṭ-ṭaʿāmi wa-l-ʾalwāni.[2][8] This recipe, in Gaul's words, calls for "cooking pigeon with cinnamon, almonds, saffron, onion, and eggs, as well as a double-cooking process similar to today's conventional recipe, by which the ingredients are first cooked in a pot and then finished in the oven."[9]
The historian Idriss Bouhlila lists the dish as one of the Ottoman Algerian foods that affected Tetuani cuisine as a result of Algerian migration to Tétouan in the aftermath of the French invasion of Algiers in 1830, while acknowledging those who consider the dish to be of Andalusi origin.[10] Bouhlila's study corroborated Gaul's theory that the name of the dish, which according to Bouhlila is of Turkish origin, as well as the werqa used to make it, arrived with the Algerian migrants to Tétouan, and spread from there to the rest of Morocco sometime after 1830.[11][10]
According to Ken Albala, the basic concept of the pastilla was likely brought to Morocco by Muslims who left al-Andalus in the 16th century or earlier because there had been considerable traffic with Morocco since Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in the seventh century.[12]
According to the historian of Jewish food, Gil Marks, pastilla was brought to Morocco by Sephardic Jews and, after filo reached the Maghreb in the Ottoman era, cooks substituted it for Andalusi-style pastry. Sephardim continued to pronounce the name with "p", while Arabic speakers substituted a "b".[5]: 1385
In Morocco, pastilla is generally served as a starter at the beginning of special meals,[13] and in one of two forms: one with poultry and one with seafood.[14] In Algeria, pastilla is usually made with chicken or with pigeon.[15][1]
Poultry pastilla
A slice of chicken pastilla.
Poultry pastilla was traditionally made of squab (fledgling pigeons), but shredded chicken is more often used today. It combines sweet and salty flavours; crisp layers of the crêpe-like werqa, savory meat slow-cooked in broth and spices and then shredded, and a crunchy layer of toasted and ground almonds, cinnamon, and sugar.[16] The filling is made by browning the poultry in butter. Chopped onions, water, parsley, and various spices including saffron are added and the meat is simmered until tender. When cool, the meat is deboned and the flesh shredded. The liquid is reduced and thickened with eggs to form a custard-like sauce. Meat and custard are often prepared a day ahead.
Blanched almonds are fried in oil, then crushed finely and mixed with powdered sugar and cinnamon. In a round baking pan, several pieces of the thin werqa are layered, each brushed with melted butter, and overhanging the edge of the pan. The cook adds the egg mixture, places another buttered sheet of dough over it, adds the shredded meat, also covered with a sheet of dough, and then the almond mixture is added. The overlapping pieces of dough are folded over the filling, and another 2 pieces of buttered dough are added and tucked in around the edges of the pie. The pie is baked until heated through, and the layers of dough are brown. Powdered sugar and cinnamon are sprinkled over the top before serving hot.[17]
Seafood pastilla
Seafood pastilla served in a home in Casablanca.
Seafood pastilla (Moroccan Arabic: بسطيلة الحوت, romanized: basṭīlat el-ḥūt) usually contains fish and other seafood, in addition to vermicelli. Unlike poultry pastilla, seafood pastilla is not sweet, but spicy.
Whereas poultry pastilla is dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon, seafood pastilla is usually dressed with a light sprinkle of shredded cheese and a few slices of lemon. This version of pastilla is often served at Moroccan weddings.[18]
Pastilla with milk
Jawhara (جوهرة), a Moroccan delicacy typical of Fes, with fried waraq pastry, cream, orange blossom water, and toasted almond slices.
In the traditional Fassi cuisine, pastilla can also be served as a dessert, in which case, the pastilla is called Jowhara (جوهرة, jewel) or "Pastilla with milk". This pastilla is also made of warka and a milky cream put between the sheets. The Jowhara is flavored with orange flower water and decorated with cinnamon and sugar.[19][better source needed]
^I was especially interested in Tetouani baqlawa, a pastry typically associated with the eastern Mediterranean, not the west. The baqlawa we sampled was shaped in a spiral, unlike the diamond-shaped version I was more familiar with from Levantine food. But its texture and flavors––thin buttered layers of crisp papery pastry that crunch around sweet fillings with honeyed nuts––were unmistakable. Instead of the pistachios common in eastern baqlawa, El Mofaddal's version was topped with toasted slivered almonds. Was baqlawa the vehicle that had introduced phyllo dough to Morocco? [...] There is a strong argument for the Turkic origin of phyllo pastry, and the technique of shaping buttered layers of it around sweet and nut-based fillings was likely developed in the imperial kitchens of Istanbul. So my next step was to find a likely trajectory that phyllo dough might have taken from Ottoman lands to the kitchens of northern Morocco. [...] It so happened that one of Dr. Bejjit's colleagues, historian Idriss Bouhlila, had recently published a book about the migration of Algerians to Tetouan in the nineteenth/thirteenth century. His work explains how waves of Algerians migrated to Tetouan fleeing the violence of the 1830 French invasion. It includes a chapter that traces the influences of Ottoman Algerians on the city's cultural and social life. Turkish language and culture infused northern Morocco with new words, sartorial items, and consumption habits––including the custom of drinking coffee and a number of foods, especially sweets like baqlawa. While Bouhlila acknowledges that most Tetouanis consider bastila to be Andalusi, he suggests that the word itself is of Turkish origin and arrived with the Algerians." [...] "Bouhlila's study corroborated the theory that the paper-thin ouarka used to make bastila, as well as the name of the dish itself, were introduced to Morocco by way of Tetouani cuisine sometime after 1830."[2]
^ abIdriss Bouhlila. الجزائريون في تطوان خلال القرن 13هـ/19م. pp. 128–129. إذا كان المجتمع التطواني قد تأثر في حياته اليومية ببعض الألبسة والمصطلحات اللغوية العثمانية، فقد تأثرت المائدة التطوانية - هي أيضا - بأصناف وأطباق جميلة من المأكولات، والحلويات العثمانية الجزائرية. نذكر منها على سبيل المثال: - الباصطيلة: تعد من الأطعمة الفاخرة التي تزخر بها المائدة التطوانية. وهناك من يقول على أنها أندلسية الأصل.
^Gaul, Anny (2019-11-27). "Bastila and the Archives of Unwritten Things". Maydan. Retrieved 2022-02-19. There is a strong argument for the Turkic origin of phyllo pastry" ... "His work explains how waves of Algerians migrated to Tetouan fleeing the violence of the 1830 French invasion."..."While Bouhlila acknowledges that most Tetouanis consider bastila to be Andalusi, he suggests that the word itself is of Turkish origin and arrived with the Algerians." ... "Bouhlila's study corroborated the theory [of Zette Guinaudeau] that the paper-thin ouarka used to make bastila, as well as the name of the dish itself, were introduced to Morocco by way of Tetouani cuisine sometime after 1830.
