I've been wanting to try my hand at making bastila ever since I was given this book. It looks fascinating and delicious. But I always found the recipes a bit intimidating. First you have to make your warqa, which already looked pretty challenging to me, and then you have to assemble that into a pie! A pie that needs to be baked and flipped over multiple times! It all sounded a bit too daunting to me. Especially since I kept eyeing up the fancy "bastila of Fes with chicken or quail". Somehow it felt like I should start with that one -- it being the famous classic version and all. But it's also quite intricate and complicated. And eventually I realized that maybe it would be better to start with one of the simpler bastilas.

This bastila uses ground beef (rather than chicken, quail, squab, or lamb like many of the others do) and the filling can be prepared in advance, so you don't have to do everything the day of. And, aside from feeling like I need to work on my warqa-making technique, I was very happy with the results. So now I have finally made a bastila!

Beef Bastila with Peppers, Raisins, and Olives

Slightly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 225g ground beef
• 2/3 c. chopped onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 tsp. la kama spice mixture
• 1/2 tsp. ras el hanout
• 3 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 55g vermicelli pasta or rice vermicelli
• 1 large (or 2 small) bell peppers, grilled or broiled, peeled and diced
• 1 c. chopped tomato
• 1/2 tsp. harissa or biber salçasi (Turkish red pepper paste)
• 3 Tbsp. golden raisins
• 10-12 Picholine or green olives, pitted and sliced
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• black pepper, to taste
• 24 warqa leaves or 225g fillo leaves
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp. water¹
• 2-3 Tbsp. melted ghee² (2 Tbsp. for warqa; 3 Tbsp. for fillo)
• lemon slices and/or parsley sprigs, for garnish

Directions

1. Combine the beef, onion, garlic, la kama spice mix, ras el hanout, parsley, cilantro, and salt and cook, covered, on low heat for ~20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, boil the vermicelli in salted water until al dente (probably 1-4 minutes depending on your pasta).
3. Drain the pasta/noodles, shock with cold water, and then cut into 5cm pieces and set aside.
4. Add the bell pepper, tomato, harissa, raisins, and olives to the pan with the meat and increase heat to medium.
5. Cook the meat mixture, uncovered, over medium heat for ~5 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and add the vermicelli to the pan along with the lemon juice. Toss to combine.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Chill until ready to use. (Can be made a day in advance.)
9. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and brush the bottom and sides of a 25cm (10") tart tin or pizza pan with the oil.
10. Beat the egg yolk with the water and set aside.
11. If using warqa:
    • Arrange all but 5 or 6 of the leaves, shiny-side-down, overlapping, and overhanging the sides of the pan.
    • Spread the filling over the pastry leaves, lightly pressing down, then fold the edges of the pastry leaves up over the filling to enclose it.
    • Brush the folded leaves with some of the egg yolk mixture.³
    • Place the remaining leaves shiny-side-up and overlapping on top of the bastila. Tuck in the edges to create a fully-enclosed pie.
    • Brush the top of the pie with the melted ghee followed by a light coating of the egg yolk mixture.
    If using fillo:
    • Arrange half the fillo leaves, one on top of the other, so that they cover the bottom and overhang the edges of the pan. As you arrange the pastry, brush every second leaf/sheet with melted ghee.
    • Spread the filling over the pastry leaves, lightly pressing down, then fold the edges of the pastry up over the filling to enclose it (or nearly so).
    • Brush the folded leaves with some of the egg yolk mixture.
    • Cover with the remaining fillo leaves and tuck the edges under the pie.
    • Brush the top with a light coating of egg yolk.
12. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 20 minutes.
13. Shake the pan a bit to loosen tthe pie.
14. If necessary, tilt the pan to pour off any excess fat.
15. Invert the pie onto a greased baking sheet.
16. Brush the pie with the remaining egg yolk.
17. Return to the oven and take at 200°C (400°F) for another 10 minutes.
18. Remove the pie from the oven and, if necessary, tilt to pour off any excess fat.
19. Put a serving platter or cutting board over the pie and invert the pie onto the platter/board.
20. Decorate the top with lemon slices and/or sprigs of parsley.
21. Cut into wedges and serve hot (with extra harissa)!

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¹ I forgot to add the water to my egg yolk, which made it a bit too thick to easily brush onto the pastry. ^Back
2 I got a little discombobulated and just ended up using melted butter for this instead of melted ghee. It still seemed to work out alright, but I think the ghee would've been even better. ^Back
3 I totally missed this step when building my bastila. It was buried in a long paragraph of instructions and I think my eyes just skipped a line and it didn't get done. This is why I tend to break the instructions down a bit more when I do recipe write-ups: less chance of missing a step. ^Back