{{Short description|North African pie made from meat and layered pastry dough}} {{about|the North African meat pie|the Philippine milk-based confectionery|Pastillas|Russian fruit confectionery|Pastila}} {{Redirect|Bastilla|the genus of moths|Bastilla (moth){{!}}''Bastilla'' (moth)}} {{pp-sock|small=yes}} {{Infobox food | name = Pastilla | image = Bisteeya.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = | alternate_name = Bastilla, basṭīla, r’zeema, tajik, malsouka | country = | region = Maghreb | national_cuisine = {{unbulleted list|Morocco|Algeria|Tunisia}} | creator = | course = | type = Meat pie | served = | main_ingredient = Warka dough, broth, spices; squab, chicken, fish or offal | variations = | calories = | other = }} '''Pastilla''' ({{langx|ar|بسطيلة|basṭīla}}, also called a '''bastilla'''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thespruceeats.com/chicken-bastilla-recipe-2394641|title=Moroccan Chicken Bastilla|author=Benlafkih, Christine|publisher=The Spruce Eats|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=July 25, 2025|access-date=August 9, 2025|archive-date=August 9, 2025|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250809215014/https://www.thespruceeats.com/chicken-bastilla-recipe-2394641}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://foodwaysandmemes.com/traditional-chicken-bastilla-of-morocco/|title=Traditional Chicken Bastilla of Morocco|author=Plum, Sherry|publisher=Food Ways and Memes|language=en-US|url-status=live|access-date=August 9, 2025|archive-date=August 9, 2025|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250809215044/https://foodwaysandmemes.com/traditional-chicken-bastilla-of-morocco/}}</ref> or a '''North African pie''') is a meat or seafood pie in Maghrebi cuisine made with ''warqa'' dough ({{lang|ar|ورقة}}), which is similar to filo. It is a specialty of Morocco, Algeria,<ref name="Albala2011" />{{efn|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."<ref name="Anny Gaul">{{cite web|title=Bastila and the Archives of Unwritten Things|url=https://themaydan.com/2019/11/bastila-and-the-archives-of-unwritten-things/|last=Gaul|first=Anny|date=2019-11-27|website=Maydan|access-date=2019-12-13}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hommes-et-migrations.fr/docannexe/file/1246/1246_13.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412100745/http://www.hommes-et-migrations.fr/docannexe/file/1246/1246_13.pdf|archive-date=2019-04-12|title=Migrations|website=www.hommes-et-migrations.fr}}</ref><ref>Bouksani, Louisa (1989). ''Gastronomie Algérienne''. Alger, Ed. Jefal. p. 150</ref> and Tunisia, where its variation is known as ''malsouka''.<ref name="Gil Marks" />{{rp|1190}}<ref name="Zika 2020">{{cite web | title=TAJIK-PASTILLA BÔNOISE PIGEONS ET NOIX | website=Cuisine Bonoîse de Zika | date=11 Feb 2020 | url=https://cuisinebonoisedezika.blogspot.com/2020/02/tajik-pastilla-bonoise-pigeons-et-noix.html | language=fr | access-date=5 Apr 2023}}</ref> It has more recently been spread by emigrants to France, Israel, and North America. thumb|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.<ref>[http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/3/id/66/. Bastilla]. Clifford A Wright. 2016</ref> 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 {{lang|ar|فضالة الخوان في طيبات الطعام والألوان}} {{transliteration|ar|fuḍālat al-k̲iwān fī ṭayyibāti ṭ-ṭaʿāmi wa-l-ʾalwāni}}.<ref name="Anny Gaul" /><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Ibn Razīn al-Tuǧībī|first1=ʻAlī b. Muḥammad|title=Fuḍālat al-k̲iwān fī ṭayyibāt al-ṭaʻām wa-al-alwān: ṣūra min fann al-ṭabk̲ fī al-Andalus wa-al-Maġrib fī bidāyat ʻaṣr Banī Marīn li-Ibn Razīn al-Tuǧībī|last2=Ibn Šaqrūn|first2=Muḥammad|date=1984|publisher=Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī|location=Bayrūt|language=ar|oclc=776451991}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite web|last=anny|date=2018-02-25|title=seven centuries of bstila|url=https://cookingwithgaul.com/2018/02/25/seven-centuries-of-bstila/|access-date=2022-02-19|website=cooking with gaul|language=en}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Bouhlila-2012">{{cite book|author=Idriss Bouhlila|url=https://archive.org/details/Al-djazairiyun.Fi.Ttouan|title=الجزائريون في تطوان خلال القرن 13هـ/19م|pages=[https://archive.org/details/Al-djazairiyun.Fi.Ttouan/page/n127 128]–129|quote=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.}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gaul|first=Anny|date=2019-11-27|title=Bastila and the Archives of Unwritten Things|url=https://themaydan.com/2019/11/bastila-and-the-archives-of-unwritten-things/|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Maydan|language=en-US|quote="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."}}</ref><ref name="Bouhlila-2012" /> Furthermore, Ahmed al-Rahouni stated that pastilla is of Ottoman origin in his book ''Umdat al-Rawin fi Tarikh Tatawin'' (The Guide of Narrators in the History of Tetouan).<ref name=Al-Othmani>{{cite journal |last=Al-Othmani |first=Saida Muhammad Ibn Al-Arabi |last2=Salah |first2=Yasser Wajih |title=The Ottoman-Moroccan Relations Crossed the Path of Alliance and Conflict |journal=Journal of Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences |volume=69 |date=2021 |doi=10.33193/JALHSS.69.2021.521 |issn=2414-3383 |page=24 |url=https://www.jalhss.com/index.php/jalhss/article/download/521/513|doi-access=free }}</ref> Historians believe that the dish entered northern Morocco through Ottoman Algeria as a result of the relations between the two regions in the 18th and 19th century, according to historians this may explain why many inhabitants of northern Morocco called the dish Turkish.{{sfn|Al-Othmani|Salah|2021|page=24}}
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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Albala|first=Ken|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zG1H75z0EYYC&q=bestila&pg=PA234|title=Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia [4 volumes]: [Four Volumes]|date=2011-05-25|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-37627-6|language=en}}</ref>
According to 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".<ref name="Gil Marks">{{cite book|author=Gil Marks|title=Encyclopedia of Jewish Food |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gFK_yx7Ps7cC|year=2010|publisher=HMH |isbn=978-0-544-18631-6}}</ref>{{rp|1385}}
In Morocco, pastilla is generally served as a starter at the beginning of special meals,<ref name="Inc2012">{{cite book|author=Fodor's Travel Publications, Inc|title=Fodor's Morocco|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780307928320|url-access=registration|year=2012|publisher=Fodors Travel Publications|isbn=978-0-307-92832-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780307928320/page/19 19]–}}</ref> and in one of two forms: one with poultry and one with seafood.<ref name="Philpott2016">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3dIbDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA278|title=The World of Wine and Food: A Guide to Varieties, Tastes, History, and Pairings|author=Don Philpott|date=20 October 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-6804-3|page=278}}</ref> In Algeria, pastilla is usually made with chicken or with pigeon.<ref name="AllenSegal1973">{{cite book|author1=Philip M. Allen|author2=Aaron Segal|title=The Traveler's Africa: A Guide to the Entire Continent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ScJxAAAAMAAJ|year=1973|publisher=Hopkinson & Blake, Publishers|isbn=978-0-911974-07-2|page=83}}</ref><ref name="Albala2011">{{cite book|author=Ken Albala|title=Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NTo6c_PJWRgC&pg=PA8|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-37626-9|page=8}}</ref>
==Poultry pastilla== thumb|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 savoury 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://norecipes.com/blog/pastilla-recipe/|title=Pastilla Recipe - Bastilla Recipe - Delicious Techniques|website=norecipes.com|date=12 July 2009}}</ref> 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 two 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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Abitbol|first=Vera|date=2016-11-17|title=Pastilla|url=https://www.196flavors.com/morocco-pastilla/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=196 flavors|language=en-US}}</ref>
== Seafood pastilla == thumb|Seafood pastilla served in a home in Casablanca Seafood pastilla ({{langx|ary|بسطيلة الحوت|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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sayidaty.net/node/468046/%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%88%D9%85%D8%AC%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%B9/%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%A9/%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A-%D8%B5%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%82-%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%82%D9%88%D8%B3-%D8%B9%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%A9|title=في العرس المغربي: صناديق مبتكرة لتقديم الهدايا وطقوس عريقة|date=2016-09-05|website=مجلة سيدتي|language=ar|access-date=2020-02-21}}</ref>
==Pastilla with milk== [[File:شهية الجوهرة المغربية.jpeg|thumb|''Jawhara'' ({{Lang|ar|جوهرة}}), a Moroccan dessert 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'' ({{Lang|ar|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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://moroccanzest.com/moroccan-food-you-must-try/|title=Traditional Moroccan Food {{!}} Moroccanzest|date=2018-07-28|work=Moroccanzest|access-date=2018-11-05|language=en-US}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=April 2024}}
==Sephardic Jewish version== Among Moroccan Jews, pastilla is made with olive oil or margarine rather than butter to follow the laws of kashrut, which specifically prohibit eating dairy products and meat together.
In the Jewish Moroccan cuisine of Casablanca, pastilla includes browned onions in the filling. Modern Israeli adaptations sometimes use phyllo sheets and shape the dish into cigars.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chicken Pastilla Cigars Recipe - Etti Cohen |url=https://asif.org/en/recipes/chicken-pastilla-cigars/ |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=Asif |language=en-US}}</ref>
An increasingly popular variant makes individual pastries rather than large pies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Solomonov |first1=Michael |title=Zahav: A World of Israeli Cuisine |date=2016 |publisher=HMH}}</ref>
==See also== {{commons category}} * Moroccan cuisine * Algerian cuisine * List of Moroccan dishes * List of Middle Eastern dishes * List of pies, tarts and flans * Andalusian cuisine * Sephardic Jewish cuisine * Berber cuisine * Pigeon pie
== References == ===Footnotes=== {{notelist}}
===Citations=== {{Reflist}}
{{Cuisine of Morocco}} {{Jewish baked goods}}{{Israeli cuisine}} {{African cuisine}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Savoury pies Category:Moroccan cuisine Category:Mediterranean cuisine Category:Sephardi Jewish cuisine Category:North African cuisine Category:Chicken dishes Category:Fish dishes Category:Maghrebi cuisine Category:Middle Eastern cuisine Category:Berber cuisine Category:Jewish cuisine Category:Algerian cuisine