A round of puff pastry filled with cabello de ángel, the candied strands of a Spanish pumpkin, baked until the layers separate and dusted heavily with sugar and cinnamon. Eaten at room temperature with coffee.

Also called the pastel de cidra, the pastel cordobés is the city's defining pastry and turns on one ingredient: cabello de ángel, angel hair, made by boiling the flesh of the cidra pumpkin with sugar until it separates into translucent threads. The filling is medieval Andalusi confectionery, sugar-preserving fruit being an Arab technique, and it survives across Spain but is at its most concentrated here. Obrador San Rafael, working in Córdoba since 1918, makes the version most cordobeses treat as the benchmark.

3 editor picks for Pastel cordobés in Córdoba, ranked by editorial score. All Córdoba signature dishes · Pastel cordobés across every city.