These golden, nutty, syrupy pieces of Greek goodness epitomise that contented holiday feeling of finishing the last of your wine, looking out over the water and all being right with the world again. In celebration of Silversea releasing their new 2023 itineraries early, including a 10-night Athens to Athens sailing aboard Silver Spirit that promises the Mediterranean we’ve all missed, we’re rustling up a batch of traditional Saragali until we can have the real deal.

INGREDIENTS

For the syrup:

  • 500g granulated sugar
  • 300ml water
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 50g glucose syrup
  • 6 cloves
  • 1 lemon, peeled; 15ml or 1 tbsp juice

For the Saragli:

  • 400g butter
  • 100g walnuts
  • 100g shelled pistachios (reserve a few chopped pistachios to sprinkle over the pastries after baking)
  • 100g almonds
  • 100g walnuts
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground cloves
  • 900g filo dough sheets

METHOD

For syrup:

  1. Add sugar, water, cinnamon stick, glucose syrup, whole cloves and lemon rind to a small pot and set over medium heat.
  2. Simmer for 2-3 minutes; as soon as the sugar melts, remove the pot from heat. Add the lemon juice, stir and set aside to cool.

For the saragli:

  1. Preheat the oven to 160°c.
  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat; once melted, transfer to a bowl and have a pastry brush ready.
  3. In a food processor (or mortar and pestle) grind the pistachios, walnuts, almonds, cinnamon and cloves together to a medium coarse texture.
  4. Transfer the filling to a bowl and lay the filo pastry on a clean work surface. Take one sheet and drizzle with melted butter. Cover with another sheet of filo and drizzle again with butter. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of the nuts mixture over the filo layers, about 2 tablespoons at a time. With the short edge nearest you, roll the pastry loosely away from you. Now you will have a sausage shaped roll.
  5. Brush a 30×40 cm baking tray with butter and place the roll. Repeat the process of filling and rolling until the tray is full of filo rolls.
  6. When the tray is full, drizzle any leftover butter over the filo rolls.
  7. Cut each roll into 3 pieces and bake for 1 hour.
  8. When golden, remove from the oven and immediately pour the cool syrup over the hot saragli. Allow them to soak up the syrup for 30 minutes.
  9. Sprinkle with ground pistachio nuts and serve.

Chef tip: To create a more ruffled effect, roll the pastry around a skewer or chopstick, before pushing the pastry gently to the middle. Once slightly creased, remove the skewer and transfer to baking tray.