Kataifi is a delicate pastry product made with thin strands of shredded puff pastry (phyllo) dough. These strands are used in a variety of sweets that are rolled or layered with it, many including nuts and sweet syrups.
Knafeh, a layered dessert with cheese, sweet syrup, nuts, and kataifi, is one of the best known of these.
There is substantial regional variation as to the naming of this product. In Arabic, the name may refer to the string pastry itself, or to the entire dessert dish. In Turkish, the string pastry is known as tel kadayıf, and the cheese-based dessert that uses it as künefe. In the Balkans, the shredded dough is similarly known as kadaif or cataif, and in Greece as kataifi.