Best Pastilla in Fes — The City That Perfected It

Pastilla is Morocco's most elaborate festive dish, and Fassi cooks are its acknowledged masters. Traditionally it is made with pigeon (now often chicken), slow-cooked with saffron, ginger, onion and a fragrant broth, then shredded and folded into layers of paper-thin warqa pastry with a sweet almond mixture and eggs cooked in the reduced sauce. The pie is baked until golden and crisp, then finished with a snow of icing sugar and a lattice of cinnamon. The first bite — crackling pastry, savoury meat, sweet almond, warm spice — is unlike anything else in Moroccan cooking.

In Fes, pastilla appears at weddings, feasts and Friday tables, and the medina's traditional restaurants and riads take real pride in it. Because it is labour-intensive, the best versions are made to order or for special occasions, so it is worth seeking out a place known for it rather than expecting it everywhere. A modern seafood pastilla — vermicelli, fish and shellfish in a lighter, savoury pastry without the sugar — is also common and excellent, but the classic sweet-savoury poultry version is the one to try first in Fes.

The dish belongs to a wider Fassi tradition of refined, slightly sweet cooking that reflects the city's long history as Morocco's culinary and intellectual capital. Alongside pastilla you will find dishes finished with honey, dried fruit and almonds, and a delicacy of seasoning that Fassis are famous for. Eating a proper pastilla here is eating the high point of that tradition.

Because a whole pastilla is large and rich, it is usually shared as a starter or centrepiece among several people. Order one for the table, eat it while the pastry is still crisp, and go easy beforehand — it is deceptively filling.