Galician mussel pie

How to prepare a Galician mussel empanada Who doesn’t like Galician empanada? Well, I am presenting you today, with mussels and tomato sauce, it will have a place in your kitchen.

I have had the pleasure of being able to prepare it live for the attendees of our last course of Galician empanadas in ApetitOH and eat a generous portion having a good time with these kitchen lovers who I hope will repeat this recipe at home.

As I said in the course (among many other things …) we are going to share with the rest of the tarts the recipe so that no one misses this luxury of empanada, which has undoubtedly been the most successful and most liked.

Galician arrabbiata mussel pie or with spicy tomato sauce , sounds good huh? Well I assure you, it tastes better. This recipe is an adaptation of the traditional mussel pie of a lifetime.

Although with an Italian twist of the arrabbiata sauce that gives it a wonderful spicy touch and that does not disappoint. A sauce that you can also use for pasta recipes .

If you want to turn your kitchen into a piece of Galicia and that a crispy piece of a Galician pie comes out of the oven to your table, all you have to do is follow this recipe step by step. To her!

Preparation of the mussels

1. The key to making this recipe a success are its ingredients, on the one hand the bread dough and on the other that the mussels are Galician and of quality.
2. We wash the mussels very well in cold water and remove all the impurities that come in the bag.
3. We heat a glass of water in the saucepan. When the water starts to boil add a bay leaf and then the mussels.
4. We add a generous stream of white wine, Galician white wine is my recommendation.
5. We leave them cooking 3 minutillos and as soon as they are all open we remove them with a slotted spoon.
6. Let cool and reserve on a plate. We are not going to throw the cooking water, strain it and leave it in a glass.
7. We remove the mussels helped by a good knife, we drag the whole mussel until the interior is clean.
8. We clean well the filaments and the broken shells that remain stuck to the mussel. We reserve because they are already perfect to add at the end of the preparation of the arrabbiata tomato sauce.

Preparation of the filling of the arrabbiata mussel pie

1. We put the extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan. When it is hot we toss the 3 onions in thin julienne, that is to say, in thin strips.
2. We spend about 8 minutes over medium heat until they are transparent and poached.
3. We remove from the casserole to a source and we already have the first layer of the pie.
4. We open the can of whole peeled tomatoes and remove the excess liquid, the tomato water since in this case we are only going to use the pulp. We can keep it in a pot for another future tomato recipe.
5. Peel the garlic and fillet finely. In the same casserole of the onion, add a little more oil and heat. We add the sliced ​​garlic and the cayennes cut in half.
6. We brown the ingredients, when they begin to have color we introduce the tomatoes and we cut them in half with the help of a wooden spoon.
7. Let it cook until reduced in half, about 15 minutes over medium heat.
8. Add a teaspoon of sugar to reduce acidity, a pinch of salt, introduce the chopped basil and spices. We remove everything well by bringing together flavors.
9. We test the filling and rectify with salt, although it is most likely not necessary.
10. Stir for a few minutes, add the mussels, mix with the sauce and remove from the heat.
11. Let it cool and put the excess oil in a glass. It is important to remove the excess oil so that the filling is juicy and at the same time to use it in the preparation of the dough, as I explain later.

Preparation of the Galician empanada dough

We already have the compango or roast cooling, the excess oil in the glass and now we can already prepare the Galician empanada dough . In this video you can see step by step how it is prepared or in the recipe that we already have on the blog.

Preparation of the mussel pie with arrabbiata sauce

1. We divide the empanada dough into two similar parts. We knead them again in two balls of dough to be able to work well with them.
2. We flour the kitchen counter and roll out the dough with the rolling pin. We make the base that will be the size of the baking tray. We will stretch it as thin as possible with the help of the roller. We put on the tray a piece of paper for baking or waxed and on top the base cutting the excess if needed.
3. First add a layer of onion, top the sauce with the mussels well drained of oil (drained but somewhat oily and juicy so that it comes out very rich) and stretch it all over the base. There should be no gap, we want any piece we cut to have mussels. It is very important that the filling is cold so that the dough holds up well.
4. We cover with the other half well stretched. We seal it at the edges by braiding the lower part over the upper part with the help of a fork or with the help of the fingers, from right to left and then pressing.
5. We make a small hole in the center for the empanada to breathe and with a fork we puncture through different areas, so it will not swell. We decorate with strips or cords of the excess pasta.
6. We paint the empanada with virgin olive oil with the help of a kitchen brush.
7. We preheat the oven for 180 minutes at 180º C and then put the empanada at the same temperature, first in the bottom of the oven (about 20 minutes) and then another 15-20 minutes in the center. When it is golden brown, we remove it.

You can see all the step-by-step photos of this Galician mussel empanada recipe in this album.

Tips for a Stuffed Mussel Pie

• And finally the empanada! Be careful when removing it from the tray because it will still be hot and it is easy to break, cut it with a good pair of scissors when it is warm. I can assure you that not a few miserable faragullas (crumbs) were left over.
• An empanada de lomo or the traditional empanada de bacalao  are an example, I assure you that you will find a lot of ideas to make an empanada like in Galicia itself.