[2] As knowledge of Ladino is lost among the younger generation of Sephardic Jews, Judeo-Spanish has become a "language of food".

[3] In Judeo-Spanish boreka originally referred to empanada-style pastries, while the traditional Ottoman börek were called bulema.

[9] Sephardic Jews also make a special version of borekitas that are deep-fried, soaked in honey, and filled with nuts, served as a traditional Purim delicacy.

In some towns of Emilia-Romagna[12] such as the former city-states Ferrara and Modena, the Jewish community used to consume a half-moon-shaped sweet pastry called burriche or burricche.

With the massive influx of Sephardi Jews, they brought with them their cuisine, and it included bourekas.

The laws of kashrut require avoiding eating dairy pastries together with ones containing meat, so conventional, distinctive shapes are used to indicate different types of fillings.

To make homemade filo for bourekas, a simple flour and water dough is rolled out like thin flatbreads.

It is a laborious process and storebought frozen puff pastry or phyllo dough is more commonly used by home chefs today.

Any variety of fillings are placed into the center of each piece of dough, the edges of which are sealed with egg wash or water.

Savory bourekas are traditionally paired with hard-boiled eggs or haminados, a hot sauce such as skhug or harif, grated tomato, and sometimes tahini sauce, as well as olives, Israeli pickles, other pickled vegetables, and sometimes a salad as well.

The use of skhug and grated tomato as an accompaniment to bourekas originated within the Yemenite Jewish community of Israel, who serve many of their traditional breads such as malawach in a similar manner.