What traditional dishes are made with kataifi?

Kataifi (or kadaif) is used in both sweet and savoury dishes. It transforms from a moist, pliable dough into a golden, crispy texture when baked or fried. Before use, it is separated into strands and mixed with clarified butter or olive oil, then filled or used as a wrapper.

Classic sweet dishes

– Kataifi (Greek/Turkish dessert). This is the most iconic dish. It consists of kataifi pastry rolled up and filled with chopped nuts (such as walnuts, almonds or pistachios). It is then baked until crisp and soaked in a sweet syrup (often flavoured with honey and spices).

-Künafe/Künefe (a Middle Eastern dessert). Similar to sweet kataifi, but traditionally filled with cheese (such as unsalted fresh cheese) rather than nuts. It is then also soaked in syrup.

In baking, as well as the traditional desserts already mentioned, kataifi is excellent for making individual nests filled with custard or pastry cream. It is also used in more modern creations such as ‘Dubai chocolate’, where toasted kataifi is mixed or combined with nut butters (such as pistachio) and chocolate, adding a distinctive crunchy texture.

Savoury dishes and appetisers

Kataifi is often used to give snacks a crispy texture:

-Seafood in kataifi. It is very common to wrap prawns, king prawns or scallops in kataifi pastry before frying or baking them.

-Feta cheese in kataifi. Small portions of feta cheese wrapped in kataifi and baked or fried, sometimes served with honey or pistachio sauces.

-Savoury rolls/baskets. The pastry is used to wrap fillings of seasoned minced meat, or to make baskets filled with cheese (such as mozzarella or mató) and other ingredients (dates, quince, etc.).