Traditionally, Maltese Cuisine consists of local seasonal vegetables, fish and meat including rabbits. The Maltese are known to be able to make pies from nearly each item of food they have in their kitchen. This makes pastry a very commonly used ingredient in the Maltese cuisine.
One of the most well known uses for pastry in Maltese Cuisine is for making Pastizzi. Their equivalent English name is that of cheese cake (or pie cake), however they have nothing got to do with the cheese cake which is eaten as a dessert or at tea time.
A quick trip around Malta quickly shows that the Pastizzi are still eaten and loved by the Maltese as hundreds of Pastizzerias (small shops used to sell these and other small snacks) can be found throughout the whole island. These Pastizzi are basically small pastry snacks in the shape of a diamond filled with ricotta or else with a pea filling. The Pastizzi themselves are made from a dough similar to puff pastry which crumbles very easily, but that crumbling is also the trademark of the Pastizzi; they would not be considered Maltese Pastizzi if they were not so crumbly.
The Maltese love their Pastizzi so much, that when many of us immigrated to other countries from Australia, they took the recipe with them and so thanks to them, Pastizzi were carried everywhere. Their only downfall? That by just eating a single one, you would have taken in an average of 400 calories(because of all the fat in the dough); but after a hard day’s work surely this warm and crumbly snack is worth it ;)
The picture above illustrates a typically delicious Maltese Pastizz (one Pastizzi).
Image taken from: http://www.gentedimaregenealogy.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1939
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