empanada

An empanada is a type of baked or fried turnover consisting of pastry and filling, common in Spanish, other Southern European, Latin American, and Iberian-influenced cultures around the world. The name comes from the Spanish (to bread, i.e., to coat with bread), and translates as 'breaded', that is, wrapped or coated in bread. They are made by folding dough over a filling, which may consist of meat, cheese, tomato, corn, or other ingredients, and then cooking the resulting turnover, either by baking or frying. Origins The origin of empanadas is unknown but they are thought to have originated in Galicia, a region in northwest Spain. A cookbook published in Catalan in 1520, Llibre del Coch by Robert de Nola, mentions empanadas filled with seafood in the recipes for Catalan, Italian, French, and Arabian food. Predating the cookbook by two centuries, the book on Jewish Law, known as the Arba'ah Turim - whose author, Rabbi Jacob ben Asher was born in Cologne around 1270 (now in Germany) and died in Toledo (now in Spain) around 1340 - as well as the later work of the Shulchan Aruch (dated in the mid 1500s) in both Orach Chaim 318:16 and Yoreh Deah 112:6,113:3 - mention both "inpanada" and "panada" as describing a breaded product containing either fat, meat or fish on the inside. By country and region Argentina