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Empanada de atún: Galician tuna pie

A traditional pie from Galicia in north west Spain, best eaten cold.

With tinned tuna, onions, peppers, tomatoes, olives & eggs, it's perfect for picnics & lunch boxes.

Course Snack, Lunch, Light Meal
Cuisine Spanish, Galician
Keyword pie, picnic
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes
Servings 8
Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

For the dough

  • 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

For the filling

  • 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

Instructions

Dough

  1. Crack ONE of the eggs into a large bowl and lightly beat with a fork.

  2. Add the baking powder, oil, wine and salt and beat these in too.

  3. Gradually add the flour, first mixing in with the fork then using your hands to make a soft ball of dough.

    Wrap in foil or cling film and set aside at room temperature for 1 hour.

    If the room is particularly warm you may wish to rest in the fridge for a while & bring back to room temperature before using.

    Make the filling while the dough is resting.

Filling

  1. Put the 2 tablespoons of oil you reserved from the tins of tuna into a large frying pan and put over a low heat.

  2. When the oil is hot, stir in the onions, pepper and garlic and gently cook until soft (15-20 min).

  3. Stir in the tomatoes (rinse out the tin with a little water and add that too), add sugar, salt and pepper then turn up the heat to moderate.

    Bubble the sauce until it's thick with no loose liquid (approx 15 min).

  4. Take off the heat then stir in the tuna, chopped eggs and olives.

    Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

    Set aside to cool a little.

Making the empanada

  1. Use a little olive oil to grease a tin 24-28cm in diameter.

    Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 Fan / Gas 4

  2. Take the remaining egg and separate the white and yolk.

    Lightly beat the egg white with a fork.

  3. Divide the dough in two: make one a little larger than the other. Re-wrap the smaller piece.

  4. Take the larger piece of dough, roll it out thinly and place it in the tin so it covers the bottom and sides.

    If the dough sticks to your worksurface or rolling pin, drizzle a little olive oil over the worksurface rather than dusting with flour.

  5. Prick all over the base of the dough with a fork then brush with the beaten egg white.

    Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then set aside to cool a little.

    Leave the oven on at the same temperature.

  6. Spread the tuna filling evenly over the base then dampen the edges of the dough with a little water.

  7. Roll out the remaining piece of dough to fit on top of the pie base.

    Lay it on and press down all around.

  8. Stir half a teaspoon of cold water into the egg yolk then brush the glaze all over the top of the pie.

    Take a knife and make a small slit in the middle of the pie top

  9. Bake in the oven until the pie is golden brown (35-40 min)

  10. Leave to cool and serve cut into wedges.

Recipe Notes

The empanada should keep 4 days in the fridge.

 

Based on a recipe in The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden.