Pastilla au pigeon — Fez, Morocco

Fez is closely tied to pastilla. Brought from Andalusian cooking across the strait generations ago according to most accounts, it became a dish for weddings and large family gatherings in the city: a pie built from paper-thin warqa sheets, filled with pigeon slow-cooked with onions, saffron and herbs. The construction relies on contrast: a layer of shredded pigeon meat cooked down with onions and spices, a layer of eggs scrambled into the reduced cooking sauce until creamy, and a layer of fried almonds crushed with sugar and cinnamon, all wrapped in the crisp warqa. Sweet and savoury sit side by side rather than blended together. Building it takes time: the pigeons simmer slowly until the meat pulls easily from the bone, the sauce is then reduced and thickened with beaten egg, and the almonds are fried and pounded separately with sugar and cinnamon. The pastry sheets are layered and folded over the filling like a parcel before the whole pie is baked and then flipped to brown on both sides. Chicken replaces pigeon in most households today, since pigeon is harder to find than it once was, and no one treats the substitution as a loss. The pie is served hot, dusted with icing sugar and lined with cinnamon in a criss-cross pattern, cut into wedges for guests to eat with their hands or a fork.