Pastilla au Pigeon — Print Recipe

An elaborate Moroccan pie of shredded pigeon meat, spiced eggs, and toasted almonds wrapped in layers of crispy warqa pastry.

Ingredients

1 Simmer pigeons with onions, saffron, cinnamon, cilantro, parsley, butter, and water for ninety minutes until very tender.
2 Remove birds, shred meat finely, and set aside. Reduce cooking liquid by half until thick and concentrated over heat.
3 Beat eggs, pour into the reduced sauce, and stir constantly over low heat until eggs form soft curds throughout.
4 Toast almonds, then grind coarsely with sugar and cinnamon. This creates the sweet crunchy layer of the pastilla.
5 Layer buttered warqa in a round pan, add egg mixture, then meat, then almond mixture, fold and top with pastry.
6 Bake at 180C for thirty minutes until deep golden. Invert onto plate, dust with powdered sugar and cinnamon lattice.

Did You Know?

Traditional pastilla requires over thirty sheets of handmade warqa pastry, each stretched paper-thin on an inverted copper pot.