Baklava

Layered pastry widespread in Turkey, the Levant, the Balkans and the Maghreb, inherited from Ottoman and Byzantine cuisines. Thin sheets of buttered phyllo alternate with crushed nuts (pistachios, walnuts), then the whole is baked and soaked in syrup or honey scented with orange-blossom water. Cut into diamonds, rich and sweet, it ends meals in the palace hotels of the eastern basin.