Tart London: How to make spiced aubergine, tomato and feta empanadas

When Lucy was younger and travelling in Argentina, she tried her hand at making empanadas, the savoury Spanish and South American pastries that also happen to be a picnic treat in the summer.

She wasn’t great at folding the pastry (she still isn’t) but that’s the charm of a homemade pie. It doesn’t need to be perfect.

We decided to cook them recently but didn’t feel like making pastry from scratch, so pulled a pack of filo out of the freezer. The butcher wasn’t open so we went for a veggie filling: with more Middle Eastern than South American vibes. Spiced, cheesy, hot and crispy, these little pies work perfectly with a green salad or packed snugly in a basket for a weekend jaunt, with a separate container for the zingy dipping sauce.

Proper picnicking can seem like a bit of a fading art with the rise of packaged and fast food, the detritus from which litters many beautiful areas. Sadly, out of laziness, people have succumbed to plastic-wrapped ready meals. The perfect picnic should be the product of careful thought and creativity, a cacophony of flavour, colour and texture, with added naughty treats.

For any al fresco feast, keep components such as salad dressing or whole mozzarella balls separate in closed jars. We love a flask of cold soup with a little container of crab meat to add to individual portions. Take big boxes of seasonal fruit, such as white peaches and berries, with a separate container of cream, while brownies and meringues are less likely to get squashed than a cake. And don’t forget drinks. Cold bottles of rosé, jugs of white sangria and of course plenty of water for withstanding the heat. Given the unpredictability of the English weather, though, you may need to move indoors at short notice.

Spiced aubergine, tomato and feta empanadas with a herby dip (Serves 12)

Ingredients

For the empanadas

1 large aubergine

4 spring onions, finely diced

6 cherry tomatoes, chopped and seeded

1 tbsp toasted pine nuts

70g feta, crumbled

1 tsp ground cumin

1tsp ground coriander

Bunch of mint leaves, finely chopped

Bunch of coriander leaves,

finely chopped

1 tbsp ricotta

1 green chilli, chopped

and seeded

Zest of 2 lemons

4 sheets of filo, each cut lengthways into 3

For the dip

200g Greek yoghurt

Zest and juice of 1 lime

Bunch of coriander

1 clove of garlic, peeled

1 tsp ground coriander

Squeeze of honey

Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C. Pierce the aubergine all over with a knife, place on a baking tray and roast for 20 minutes until blackened and hard. Set aside to cool. In a bowl, mix together the rest of the empanada ingredients minus the pastry and season generously. Scoop the flesh out of the cooled aubergine, squeezing out and discarding as much liquid as possible using your hands or a sieve. Add the drained aubergine to the bowl.

Lay out a filo strip and place a small tablespoon of aubergine mixture at the top. Brush olive oil down to the end of the strip and fold the top corner of the pastry over the aubergine to form a small triangle. Repeat, folding left to right, until you have a small triangular parcel.

Repeat with the other filo strips until you have 12 parcels. Place them on a lined baking tray and brush the tops with a little oil and a sprinkle of nigella seeds. Bake for 10 minutes until crisp. In the meantime make the dip by blitzing all the ingredients in a food processor and serve generously alongside the parcels for dunking.