Iberia · Volume 05, The Rías, the Feira and the Road to Santiago
Empanada Gallega de Berberechos
Coastal Galicia
Illustration
- Time
- 1 hour 30
Galicia's savoury pie, whose filling has always followed the geography it was made in: meat inland, whatever the sea gave that week on the coast, cockles, sardine fry, tuna, conger eel. The cockle version is the clearest demonstration of a genuinely distinctive Galician dough choice.
As tradition built it
About 1 hour, plus 30 minutes' dough rest.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 300g maize flour, ideally the heritage variety millo corvo
- 200g plain wheat flour
- 1 tsp salt
- as needed warm water, enough to bring the dough together
- a splash a splash of olive oil
For the filling
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- as needed olive oil
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 500g fresh cockles in their shells
Method
- Mix the maize flour with the wheat flour, salt and enough warm water and a splash of olive oil to bring it together into a firm, workable dough; rest for 30 minutes.
- Sauté the onion and red pepper slowly in olive oil until completely soft.
- Add the tin of chopped tomatoes and reduce for 15 minutes, then fold through the fresh cockles in their shells.
- Roll the dough into two discs. Line a tin with the base and spread the filling evenly, including the shells, which will open and release their juice directly into the pie as it bakes.
- Top with the second disc, seal the edges by crimping into the traditional plaited border, repunte, and cut a small hole in the centre of the top crust to vent steam.
- Bake at 200°C for 35 to 40 minutes until deep golden.
What a modern chef changes
A cockle liquor reduced separately, and a laminated crust
Method
- Shuck the cockles and reduce their liquor separately in a chinois-strained pan with a splash of Albariño until syrupy.
- Fold the concentrated liquor back through the sautéed pepper and onion base before filling, distributing the released-juice flavour evenly rather than by chance.
- Laminate the dough on a pasta roller for a genuinely thin, even crust, still built on the maize flour's structural advantage for holding moisture.
- Finish the baked pie with a light brush of the reduced cockle liquor for shine and a concentrated hit of flavour on the crust itself.