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1
Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over a medium flame, then add the garlic, cumin, sweet paprika, and saffron, stirring for one minute so the spices bloom in the fat and release their fragrance rather than staying raw and sharp. Add the coriander and parsley, then the cuttlefish and cook for two minutes before adding the fish and shrimp. Cook, stirring gently, until each piece is just opaque at the centre and the shrimp are barely pink — they must not be cooked through, because they will continue in the oven inside the bastilla — the flesh should yield to very light pressure but still carry a translucent core.
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2
Transfer the seafood to a colander set over a bowl and allow to drain completely, so the pastry receives a dry filling rather than a wet one. Return all collected cooking liquid to the pan and reduce over a high flame, stirring, until it coats the back of a spoon and concentrates to a glaze — this is where the dish lives or dies, because if the filling carries any residual moisture into the pastry, the warqa will saturate and the bastilla will collapse. The cue: a finger drawn across the back of the coated spoon leaves a clean, stable line.
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3
Beat the whole eggs and combine with the reduced glaze, so the custard carries all the concentrated spice and seafood flavour through every element of the filling. Cook the vermicelli until just tender, drain, and cool before adding it, so it does not carry steam into the mixture. Combine the seafood, noodles, and egg mixture, checking that the custard coats every element evenly without pooling — no free liquid should be visible in the bowl when it is tipped gently.
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4
Brush a round baking tin or oven-proof pan with clarified butter, then lay the warqa sheets across the base and up the sides, brushing each sheet with clarified butter as you go so every layer crisps independently rather than steaming together, and overlapping them to leave an overhang that will fold back over the top. Mound the filling in the centre, then fold the overhanging sheets over the filling and seal all edges firmly with clarified butter, pressing with a pastry brush to close every gap. Lay one or two additional buttered warqa sheets on top and tuck the edges under — no opening should be visible anywhere along the seam.
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5
Bake in an oven preheated to 190 °C until the exterior is deeply golden and audibly crisp when tapped with a knuckle, which tells you the layers have dried and set rather than merely coloured on the surface. The cue is a hollow sound at the top surface and a uniform amber-gold colour with no pale patches.
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6
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for two minutes so the layers firm up and the bastilla holds its shape cleanly when inverted onto a serving platter if desired. Dust immediately and generously with icing sugar, then draw thin lines of ground cinnamon across the surface — this dusting is not decoration but the traditional sweet-savoury contrast that is definitional to bastilla. The cue: the sugar lies dry and white against the golden pastry, not melting or absorbing.