Cascais Boat Tarts
Also known as: Cascais Chatas · Cascais Boat Tarts
Fine pastry boats with Rocha pear, almonds, seaweed and Carcavelos wine.
- Origin
- Cascais · a contemporary creation documented by the municipality in 2019 as an ‘Innovation Sweet’
- Place
- Cascais
- Region
- Lisbon
- Category
- Fruit & Honey Sweets
- Season
- No established season of consumption or permanent availability
- Evidence
- Well documented
Chatas are open tarts moulded like boats. A thin flour, butter and water pastry holds two Rocha-pear preparations: 600 g / 21.2 oz are reduced with almonds in a syrup scented with kaffir lime and lemon, while the remaining 400 g / 14.1 oz are sautéed with sugar and deglazed with Carcavelos wine. Oven-dried crisp seaweed completes the construction.
The name and mould evoke the chatas, Cascais’s traditional fishing boats. Cascais FoodLab presents pear as food carried on board, seaweed as an evocation of the sea and kaffir lime as a reference to ocean voyages. The municipality classified the sweet as an innovation in 2019; it is not presented as an old recipe.
- Wheat flour
- Salted butter
- Water
- Rocha pear
- Sugar
- Ground almonds
- Mixed seaweed
- Kaffir lime
- Lemon
- Carcavelos wine
The formula combines salted-butter pastry, pear as both purée and caramelised pieces, almonds, citrus aromatics, Carcavelos wine and dried seaweed. The source publishes no formal sensory assessment from which intensity, salinity or finish could be fixed.
The single reference formula consulted uses boat moulds, layers of pear purée and pieces, and crisp seaweed. No traditional variants or historical recipe family were found; adaptations should be presented as new versions.
FoodLab publishes the recipe and its archive records a Chatas demonstration in 2023, but the consulted sources confirm no permanent maker or retail outlet. Ask Cascais FoodLab before visiting.
The formula uses Carcavelos wine with the pear, but the consulted sources prescribe no drink or accompaniment for serving.
The recipe is attributed to Cláudia Silva Mataloto and Marco Ferreira and was published in the municipal book Receitas de Reis e Pescadores (Recipes of Kings and Fishermen). FoodLab preserves the quantitative formula and the authors’ narrative about the sea, boats, pear carried by fishermen and maritime routes.
In 2019, Cascais Municipality presented Chatas among its local nominees for the 7 Maravilhas Doces de Portugal, explicitly in the ‘Innovation Sweets’ category. The nomination establishes municipal promotion and contemporary identity; it does not mean that the sweet reached the national shortlist of 140 or demonstrate production before the published creation.
Well documented
Identity supported by institutional, specialist or corroborating sources.
- foodlab.cascais.pt/pt-pt/chatas (opens in a new tab)
- cascais.pt/node/28623 (opens in a new tab)
- foodlab.cascais.pt/agenda-arquivo (opens in a new tab)
- cascais.pt/node/45906 (opens in a new tab)
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