[Photo from visitmorocco.com]

Emblematic of Fassi cuisine (meaning from Fez) and Moroccan cuisine in general, here is the recipe for this sweet-and-sour pigeon pie. For six people.

Ingredients

For the stuffing: 4 pigeons, 1kg of onions, 100g of butter, 100g of powdered sugar, 250g of almonds, 6 hard-boiled eggs, flat parsley, coriander, salt, pepper, saffron, cinnamon.

For the pastilla: 100g of butter, 2 beaten eggs, 1kg of large pastilla sheets (filo).

Preparation

Allow around 45 minutes + 1 hour 10 cooking time. Place the pigeons in a casserole dish with the chopped up parsley, onions, butter, saffron, pepper, salt and a little sugar. Cook at a medium heat for 40 minutes. Remove the pigeons. Reduce the sauce to obtain a syrup. De-bone the pigeons in a large bowl. Add the sugar, crushed almonds, hard-boiled eggs cut into small pieces and the syrupy sauce. Mix together.

Butter the pastilla mold and lay a first layer of filo sheets (smooth side down) overlapping them and leaving a third to hang over the edge of the mold. Spread out a layer of the stuffing. Cover over with the sheets. Continue until the stuffing runs out. Fold up the overhanging leaves. Stick them with the beaten egg. Bind together with more sheets. Brush with butter and glaze with egg. Cook on a medium heat at 120 °C (gas mark 4) for 20 minutes.

Turn the pastilla to glaze this side with butter for a few minutes. Decorate with lattices of cinnamon and icing sugar.

This pastilla can be made with chicken.