Cooking a Maltese dish abroad often starts with recognising an ingredient under a different name. Aubergines may be sold as eggplants, broad beans as fava beans, and lampuki as mahi-mahi. Other ingredients, especially fresh cheeselets, need more thought: the nearest available product may change the texture or flavour of the dish.

Use this guide alongside the individual recipe. It is written for English-speaking cooks in Australia, the UK, Canada, the US, and anywhere else a familiar Maltese label is hard to find. The recipe’s quantities and method remain your starting point; a substitute is identified as a variation where it behaves differently.

A Small Pantry for Maltese Cooking

Start with one recipe, not every specialist ingredient at once. These are useful starting points drawn from the recipes on this site:

• For savoury cooking: olive oil, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, and concentrated tomato paste. Keep capers and olives for recipes that call for them rather than adding them automatically.
• For beans, soups, and bakes: buy the particular dried beans, rice, or pasta in your chosen recipe. Dried broad beans for Bigilla and small wheat pasta beads for Kusksu are different purchases with different preparation needs.
• For baking: plain flour, sugar, and the specified fat are a starting point; buy almonds, dates, treacle, or semolina for the filling you plan to make. Bread flour is useful for the bread recipes, but is not a universal replacement for plain flour.
• Buy fresh ingredients by dish: ricotta and ġbejniet are not pantry staples to substitute blindly. Check the form of cheese, fish, or meat required before shopping.

For an easy first shop, read Balbuljata. For a bean dish, plan Bigilla around its soaking time. To understand where these foods fit at the table, see Maltese food explained.

Ingredient Names at a Glance

Caster sugar and icing sugar are different products: one has fine crystals, the other is a powder. King Arthur Baking’s sugar guide explains the names and uses. For the white thickening powder used in custard, see Nigella’s cornflour and cornstarch explanation.

Kunserva, Polpa, and Tomato Sauce

Kunserva is concentrated Maltese tomato paste or spread. It is used thinly on Ħobż biż-Żejt and in dishes such as Arjoli. Plain tomato paste is a practical replacement, although the sweetness and saltiness may differ. Taste before adding extra seasoning. Malta’s agricultural policy describes kunserva as a concentrated tomato product.

Polpa means chopped tomato pulp in these recipes. Use canned chopped tomatoes in Stuffat tal-Fenek. Passata is strained tomato purée, smoother than chopped tomatoes; tomato sauce may already include herbs or other seasoning. These are more liquid than concentrated paste, so a spoonful of paste and a tin of tomatoes do different jobs.

Fresh Ġbejniet and Ricotta

Ġbejna is singular; ġbejniet is plural. Check whether the recipe asks for fresh cheeselets, dried cheeselets, or peppered ones. The published specification for Ġbejna tan-nagħaġ distinguishes fresh, air-dried, and pickled-and-peppered forms. Sheep’s-milk cheeselets are indicated by tan-nagħaġ.

• For ravioli filling, well-drained ricotta is a useful home alternative. It gives a milder flavour and a different texture; use the drained weight and keep the filling firm enough to seal inside the pasta.
• In Kusksu or Soppa tal-Armla, a spoonful of drained ricotta added to the bowl gives a soft-cheese finish, but will not keep the shape of a whole cheeselet.
• For fried cheeselets, loose ricotta is unsuitable for the coating-and-frying method. Seek firm cheeselets; halloumi makes a different fried-cheese dish and needs its own preparation.

Ricotta is already the intended filling in Torta tal-Irkotta and ricotta pastizzi. Drain a wet product rather than trying to absorb all its moisture with extra flour or breadcrumbs.

Broad Beans and Kusksu Pasta

For Bigilla, look for dried broad beans or fava beans, including beans sold specifically for Bigilla. A packet of fresh or frozen green broad beans will give a different dip. Whole dried beans and peeled split beans also soften at different rates.

For Ful bit-Tewm and Kusksu, fresh or frozen podded broad beans are the closer match. Use the shelled weight, not the weight of whole pods. Do not replace them with the same weight of uncooked dried beans and keep the original short cooking time.

Kusksu uses small wheat pasta beads, despite the name’s resemblance to couscous. Small pastina is a practical alternative. Follow its cooking time and adjust the soup’s liquid as needed; instant couscous is not a direct replacement. Likewise, the vermicelli in Froġa tat-Tarja is wheat pasta, not rice vermicelli.

Lampuki, Other Fish, and Maltese Sausage

Lampuki are the dolphinfish sold as mahi-mahi in many countries. NOAA’s mahi-mahi species page lists the common names. Choose fillets or steaks to suit Lampuki Moqlija, and boneless pieces for lampuki pie. Frozen fish is an option after thawing in the fridge; pat it dry before frying.

For other fish recipes, ask a fishmonger for a fish with a suitable texture and cut. A thin fillet cooks differently from a thick steak or whole fish, even when the weight is similar. The seafood collection offers several methods to choose from.

For zalzett Malti, look for fresh Maltese pork sausage. If you cannot find it, a fresh coarse pork sausage can make a variation of sausage in tomato sauce or Kawlata, but the seasoning will differ. Cured salami or a ready-to-eat sausage is not a direct swap for raw sausage in the method.

Baking Ingredients and Sweets

Ground almonds: Look for a product made from almonds rather than a sweetened filling. Finely ground blanched almond flour is useful for a finer texture; coarser almond meal can give more texture and colour. King Arthur’s almond flour is one example of the naming, not a required brand. Marzipan already contains sugar and is not a weight-for-weight substitute in Figolli.

Semolina: This is a wheat ingredient used in Imqaret and Qagħaq tal-Għasel. It is not cornmeal or instant couscous. Match the grind where a recipe specifies it.

Black treacle: Dark baking molasses is an alternative for the honey-ring recipe. Blackstrap molasses is more bitter; honey and golden syrup give a different flavour. See Nigella’s explanation of treacle and molasses.

Mixed spice and mixed peel: Mixed spice is a sweet baking spice blend, not the single spice called allspice. Mixed peel is candied citrus peel. For Pudina tal-Ħobż, use a blend intended for sweet baking; the flavour will depend on its ingredients.

Cream and pastry: For whipped cream, check that the local product is intended for whipping. Heavy whipping cream and UK double cream differ in fat content. Ready-made pastry also varies: a sweet pie crust, shortcrust, and puff pastry are not interchangeable in every recipe. Read the recipe’s pastry notes before choosing a shortcut.

Measures for Cooking Abroad

On this site, 1 tbsp means 15ml and 1 tsp means 5ml. Use level measuring spoons unless the recipe says otherwise. Where grams or millilitres are given, use those amounts directly.

Many Australian tablespoon measures hold 20ml. For one 15ml tablespoon in these recipes, use three 5ml teaspoons, or measure 15ml directly. Check the marking on your spoons. Donna Hay’s conversion guide explains the Australian measure; Nigella also notes the difference.

Use a scale for flour, sugar, nuts, and dried beans. A cup of flour does not weigh the same as a cup of sugar, and cup sizes vary. The ingredient lists use grams and millilitres to avoid that ambiguity. When shopping for tins or jars, match the stated weight and whether it is measured before or after draining.

Oven temperatures are given in Celsius, with a separate fan temperature where specified. For an oven marked in Fahrenheit, use °F = (°C × 9 ÷ 5) + 32. Convert the conventional or fan temperature that matches your oven, rather than applying a second fan adjustment. Check doneness as described in the recipe, since ovens and pan materials vary.

Where to Start Shopping

Begin with ordinary supermarkets for vegetables, mince, ricotta, canned tomatoes, flour, and sugar. Mediterranean or Middle Eastern grocers may be useful for dried broad beans, semolina, and orange blossom water. Ask Maltese community shops or specialist importers about kunserva and ġbejniet, specifying the form of cheese you need. Availability varies; a recipe using familiar ingredients can be a better starting point than ordering everything at once.

Try Bigilla with Maltese bread, Balbuljata, or a pie from the baking and pastry collection. For a broader menu, explore 30 traditional Maltese dishes.