19/06/2020

Empanada de atún: Galician tuna pie

Name: Empanada de atún: Galician tuna pie
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 80 min
Total time: 110 min
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 1 tsp baking powder; 125 ml olive oil (plus extra for greasing the tin); 125 ml dry white wine (or dry cider); 0.5 tsp salt; 375 g plain flour; 300 g tuna in olive oil (approx 2 standard tins after draining (reserve 2 tbsp of the oil for frying)); 1 large onion (skinned, roughly chopped); 1 red pepper (chopped small); 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped); 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes; 1 tsp sugar; salt (to taste); freshly ground black pepper (to taste); 2 hard-boiled eggs (roughly chopped); 20 pitted olives (black, green or a mixture) (roughly chopped)

Empanada de atún is a traditional pie from Galicia, up in Spain’s north west corner, where I’ve enjoyed it many times. Filled with tinned tuna, onions, peppers, olives and hard-boiled eggs in a tomato sauce, the simple ingredients nevertheless create a pie that’s incredibly good.

Best eaten cold, a generous hunk of empanada is perfect for picnics and lunch boxes. Can also be served as summery main course with salad.

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From the very first time I went to Spain (Barcelona, back in 1997), I fell in love with the place. Over the years, I’ve visited most of its major cities plus countless towns and villages. We’ve toured almost all over, often driving most of the day to visit a clutch of architectural gems.

I especially loved finding incredible churches in once important places, but now seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Often beautifully restored, many seemed of little interest to anyone except us and the storks nesting on their bell towers.

Duratón, Segovia: Nuestra Señora de la Asunción © Moorlands Eater

But the region we’ve returned to the most is Galicia. We even considered moving there, although that turned out not to be.

GALICIA

Part of northern ‘Green Spain’, Galicia doesn’t have the reliably dry Summers of much of the country.

This has meant that it hadn’t experienced the mass tourism of some other Spanish regions

San Andres de Teixido, Galicia © Moorlands Eater

The one thing in Galicia you perhaps will have heard of is the magnificent Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, destination for pilgrims following the world famous Camino de Santiago.

But for those who think Spain is otherwise all about flamenco and bullfights, Galicia is a great example of the country’s diversity. With its own language, gallego, Galicia has its roots in a Celtic past: the traditional instrument here is the gaita or bagpipes, not the Spanish guitar.

Even more than the rest of Spain, Galicia seems to have retained its connection to pre-Christian beliefs. There’s much interest in magic, spirits and witchcraft, including among Catholics. I even found what appears to be a spell while walking above the town of Muxía in 2007.

I guess that’s a dog’s skull in the burnt rock crevice, and the blue and yellow smashed plaque is one of those marking the Camino de Santiago. Perhaps someone wasn’t too enamoured of all those pilgrims?

GALICIAN FOOD

Of course, the region has its own food specialities and customs too. It’s particularly known for the quality of its beef, Tetilla cheese (so named as it’s said to look like a small breast) and Tarte de Santiago: an almond cake decorated with the cross of St. James or his symbol, the scallop shell.

Alongside agriculture, fishing was traditionally Galicia’s most important economic activity.

I’ve had some of the best seafood ever while holidaying there, including zamburiñas (tiny sweet-tasting scallops), pulpo (tender octopus with smoked paprika and olive oil) and sweet mussels from Illa de Arousa where we’ve often stayed.

*Fisherwomen on Illa de Arousa © Moorlands Eater*

If we were going to pick up food for a picnic, to take with us on a walk or one of our drives, we’d often include a big slice of empanada, another Galician speciality.

These sturdy pies can contain meat such as chicken or chorizo, but more common are seafood fillings like sardines, tuna, salt cod or cockles with tomatoes, onions and peppers.

Back home, especially since getting a dog and now taking all our holidays in Britain, I’ve always meant to make my own empanada.

But it was only when flicking through my recently bought copy of Claudia Roden’s The Food of Spain (Kindle version available here) that I finally got around to it.

CLAUDIA RODEN’S EMPANADA DE ATÚN

Roden says that the recipe was given to her by Angelita Garcia de Paredes Barreda. She agreed that she would not make changes to it without asking Angelita first.

Well, I did make a few very minor changes. I can only hope Angelita will forgive me.

Mind you, I didn’t feel the need to veer much off course. It’s an excellent recipe, producing a pie that took me right back to Galicia. There’s no fancy ingredients, just simple flavours that marry beautifully.

Admittedly, the Empanada de Atún does take a while from start to finish. But that’s because there’s a fair bit of hands-off time. It certainly isn’t difficult.

THE DOUGH

The dough includes olive oil, egg and, unusually, white wine. We’d opened a bottle the night before I made this one, so thought I might as well keep back the 125 ml needed. But you can use cider instead if that suits you better.

Making the dough is simple enough. You start by whisking with a fork and, as you gradually add the flour, switch to your hands to form a soft dough. It’s then rested for an hour at room temperature. However, my kitchen was quite hot that day, so I stuck the dough in the fridge for a bit then brought it back to room temperature before continuing.

I did find rolling out the stretchy dough a little tricky. In fact, I found it impossible to follow the instruction not to stretch it when placing in the baking tin.

My effort didn’t look very tidy, and I wondered whether the dough would hold. But it turned out way better than fine, so don’t worry if you have similar difficulties.

One thing I will say though, is that the loose-bottomed baking tin I used, 24 centimetres in diameter, was smaller than the suggested 28 centimetres. This meant my finished pastry was a little thicker than I’d like, although still very good.

Ideally though, I’d make it in a slightly bigger tin.

THE FILLING

The tasty filling for the Empanada de Atún is very easy. You start off by softening onions and red pepper in olive oil. Not liking waste, I used some of the oil I drained from the tins of tuna. Diverting from the recipe, I decided to include a couple of cloves of chopped garlic too.

Once the vegetables are soft, a tin of chopped tomatoes is added along with some seasoning.

After everything’s nicely reduced and thick, off the heat you mix in the tuna, two chopped hard-boiled eggs plus olives. The original recipe calls for black olives, but I used a mixture of black and green.

COOKING THE EMPANADA

The empanada is cooked in two stages. First off, the bottom layer of dough is given an initial baking of ten minutes. After cooling, the filling is spread over and the top layer of dough added. I admit I was a little sceptical about this. Would the raw top layer stick to the part-baked lower layer?

Hedging my bets, I dampened the edge of the dough with water before pressing the lid on. Whether that made a different or not, I don’t know. But the lid stayed on fine anyway.

After an egg yolk wash to get a nice glaze, it was into the oven where the Empanada de Atún took around 35 minutes to cook.

SERVING, EATING & STORING EMPANADA DE ATÚN

I managed to restrain myself and let the pie settle and cool a little before slicing open. A little wary as to whether the filling would squidge out as I cut through, I was extremely happy to find it held together wonderfully well.

This was despite the tuna, vegetables and eggs still being nicely moist. Next day, we even took slices, wrapped in foil in the back of my rucksack, for a snack on one of our walks. And still they remained intact.

Despite being someone who usually insists on butter in my pastry, I loved this wine and olive oil dough. Sturdy enough to be satisfying and hold everything together, but not at all heavy, the simple yet tasty filling still shone through.

Between the two of us, we ate the pie over four days. Stored in a tin in the fridge, lined with kitchen paper, I think the last slices were just as good as those first bites.

Most we ate cold, some I pinged in the microwave for a minute or two just as an experiment. I’m not sure warming the Empanada de Atún improves it much, if at all, but if you prefer it that way it won’t do any harm so long as you don’t overdo it. Personally, I think room temperature is best though.

Whether you’ve tried Empanada de Atún in its Galician homeland or whether its new to you, I think you’ll enjoy this recipe.

With simple, easily available ingredients, this wonderful pie is perfect for your Summer picnics, in lunch boxes, or to eat as a main course with lots of salad.

If you’ve made this recipe, why not leave a comment below?

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