Well, Mulder, I have a special place in my heart (and stomach) for snacks. Every so often, the urge will hit me to try some new alien form of snackable treat. This was the case the other day — I was bored at work and perusing Epicurious and came across this recipe for Tuna Empanaditas. Puff pastry. Onions. Tuna. Capers. Olives. How could I not be intrigued? Right, there really was no way because I was, in fact, completely intrigued.
So, this last weekend, I decided on a whole Spanish theme, making not only these but some garlic & bread soup and an artichoke and olive dip with flat bread (that, I have decided to rework and serve hot — I will post on that later this month after I alter it a bit). The soup, however, expect this week.
But right now we are discussing the tuna puffs.
Tuna Empanaditas:
1 (6-oz) can light tuna in olive oil (not drained)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped pimiento-stuffed green olives (3 oz, drained)
2 tablespoons drained capers, rinsed and chopped
1 package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
1 round cookie or biscuit cutter
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Pour oil from tuna into a medium skillet. Add onion to skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 4 minutes.
Mash tuna in a bowl with a fork, then stir in onion, olives, and capers. Season generously with pepper and very lightly with salt.
Roll out 1 pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch square. Cut out rounds with floured cookie cutter and discard trimmings. I ended up getting 12 empanaditas per rolled out pastry sheet.
Put about 1/2 teaspoon tuna mixture in center of each round. Moisten the edge with a finger dipped in water, then fold dough over to form a half-moon, pinching edges to seal.
Form more empanaditas with remaining rounds, then bake on sheet in middle of oven until golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Meanwhile, make more with remaining pastry sheet and filling. Bake in same manner. Cool empanaditas on baking sheet on a rack about 10 minutes. Serve warm. Mmm!
The snacks are out there. Dork! I am! Whee!
Ok everything thing you make sounds amazing, but I have to say I am a sceptic of the tuna empanadas. Though you can put puff pastry around a wad of dirt, and those appetizers would be gone in 5 minutes at a party, I don’t know how I feel about tuna, Hmmm…
No, really! These were good! Use good tuna, the kind packed in oil. Not starkist or bumblebee but find some fancy-pantsy good quality, oil-packed stuff.
I also used a mix of olives (nicoise and pimento-stuffed green ones) from an olive bar that’s in the “nice” grocery story. I promise, this was good! Really! 🙂