I first ate this at Ali Baba, an Egyptian restaurant in London that the great Claudia Roden took me to about 30 years ago, and have loved it ever since; it found its way into my second book, and I've fiddled only a bit with the recipe before bringing it to the website. The quickest way to describe it to you is as a kind of Egyptian bread-and-butter-pudding: the idea is the same, though it is eggless, and pastry takes the place of the bread. That’s to say, sheets of filo are brushed with butter and cooked till crisp in a hot oven, then layered with nuts and dried fruit in a pie dish (or similar) into which you pour cream-enriched sweetened milk before baking it. And you don’t have to feel nervous about having to keep the filo from drying out; indeed as with the Greek Patsavouropita, or Old Rag Pie, I presume Om Ali was a recipe that came into being precisely to use up leftover bits of filo, in the same way that bread-and-butter-pudding is a vehicle for using up bits of stale bread. But unless you can buy proper fresh filo pastry, then I advise you to use frozen filo which you’ve thawed, as I’ve found that fresh mass-produced filo is too floury and damp. Om Ali is easy to make (you could indeed crisp up the filo a little in advance if that helps) quick to cook, looks beautiful — the white, the gold, and the flecks of green under its ruffled bronzed top — and tastes wonderful, offering gentle comfort, elegantly. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.