Tielle sétoise — Sète, France

The tielle is said to have travelled to Sète from Gaeta, near Naples, with the Italian fishermen who settled in the town at the start of the 20th century. According to local accounts, a family of Italian origin was among the first to sell it on the harbour in the 1930s. It is now closely tied to the town's identity, sold in the bakeries along the quay and carried aboard the fishing boats. It takes the form of a small, round pie: a thin bread dough tinted with tomato, filled with octopus or cuttlefish that has been finely chopped and simmered in a tomato sauce with garlic, onion and chilli. The lid of dough is pinched onto the base along the rim, forming a twisted cord that seals in the filling. The dough is kneaded with olive oil and a little tomato paste before it is left to rise. The filling is prepared separately: the octopus is boiled until tender, then chopped and simmered again in a sauce built from onion, garlic, chopped tomatoes, cayenne pepper and bay leaf, reduced until thick, and left to cool before it goes into the pie. The pies are then baked until the crust is firm and lightly coloured. Squid or a mix of octopus and squid sometimes replaces the cuttlefish, and the amount of chilli varies from a mild warmth to a sharper heat depending on the baker. The tielle is eaten cold or warm, straight from the hand, and travels well, which is part of why it became a food to take on boats and journeys.