Joshpara

Joshpara an ancient form of Iranian ravioli (or, to be exact, capelletti, meaning ‘little hats’) made by folding a square of paste over a filling to create a triangle and then wrapping the two acute angles toward each other. This creates a compact shape which is sometimes likened to the hat worn by 18th-century grenadiers because of its tallness, sometimes to an ear because of its impression of convoluted folding.

It is quite an ancient product. The Arabs adopted it with the pronunciation shushbarak or (through a folk etymology connecting it with shish, ‘skewer’, and börek) shishbarak, which indicates that it was borrowed before the 10th century when it was pronounced joshparag. The first part of the name, josh, means ‘to boil’, but the second element is obscure, possibly meaning ‘bit’. Iranians have felt the absence of a clearly analysable meaning, and the word is now pronounced gosh-e-barreh in Iran, literally ‘lamb’s ear’. The Turkish nations who have borrowed joshpara have done even more violence to the word: Azerbaijani düshbara, Uzbeki chuchwara, Uighur chöchürä.