The French are famous for their elegant layered dishes: mille-feuilles and napoleons with architectonic ambitions; lapidary operas, tropical mousse confections so unabashed in their artifice that a dandy would adore them; root-vegetable gratins cleansed of their humble earthy origins in long, slow baths of saturated fat. They are less well known for their take on that more humdrum layered creation: the sandwich.
Forget the croissant-wich — ham, turkey, cheese, tuna or chicken salad on a supersized refrigerated croissant is of course a purely American invention. The sandwiches the French do eat are usually served on baguettes and are fairly straightforward. The sandwich jambon beurre, that cafe staple, is usually made with half of a very fresh baguette, liberally spread with soft butter and simply layered with ham.
If the French eat something a little more complicated that is served between two slices of bread, it is something like the pan bagnat.
The classic pan bagnat is a close relative of the salade niçoise, and is made with a country loaf, cut in half, with much of the interior crumb removed. Some recipes call for soaking the crumb with olive oil or a simple vinaigrette and mixing it with the other elements of the sandwich to form a kind of picnic loaf or bread bowl.
Like the salade niçoise, there are no two pan bagnats that are completely alike. Some versions contain anchovies or sardines, some are made with tuna, some have raw bell peppers, some have roasted, some are made with a vinaigrette and some with straight olive oil. But a few ingredients are constant in all of them: bread, hard-boiled eggs, olives, olive oil, tomatoes and some sort of prepared fish.
This version is best made with a fresh baguette. The bread is toasted and brushed with mayonnaise; the roasted peppers are marinated to add another dimension and the eggs are cooked just short of hard-boiled to give them a little creaminess, sliced with an egg slicer (you can buy one for a few bucks at the supermarket) and showered with salt and fresh pepper. The tuna, a good quality olive oil-packed, is further seasoned. The greens are tossed with olive oil and good balsamic vinegar.
John Broening cooks at Duo restaurant, .
Pan Bagnat
Serves 4-6.
Ingredients
1 whole baguette
1 cup arugula leaves or one bunch watercress
1/4 cup niçoise, Alfonso or kalamata olives, pitted
A few slices of red onion, cut into half moons
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes (preferably Sweet 100s) cut in half
4 tablespoons good quality mayonnaise
1 jar (7.8 ounce) Ortiz oil-packed tuna (or other olive oil-packed tuna)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Marinated roasted peppers (recipe follows)
3 hard-cooked eggs (recipe follows)
Optional: 4 tablespoons fresh basil leaves
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut baguette in half horizontally. Remove a little bit of the crumb from the top half of the loaf and discard. Toast the bread until golden brown. Cool the bread slightly and spread the mayo on the bottom half of the sandwich.
In a small mixing bowl, toss together the arugula, onion, olives and tomato with the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Drain the oil from the tuna, leaving a little oil adhering for moisture, and season with a little bit of salt and pepper.
Layer the peppers on top of the bread, followed by the tuna, eggs, salad mixture and basil if using. Place the top half of the bread on top of the sandwich. Cut the baguette into 4-6 pieces.
Marinated Roasted Peppers
Ingredients
2 ripe red bell peppers
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons toasted fennel seeds
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
Zest of 1/2lemon
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse the peppers, pat dry and cut in half through the stem. Remove seeds and ribs and brush with the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and place cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes or until the skin is slightly blackened and blistered. While still hot, place peppers in a plastic bag or a small mixing bowl covered with plastic wrap. Cool. With the aid of a small paring knife, remove the skins. Place the remaining ingredients in a bowl and toss well. Refrigerate for up to three days.
Hard-cooked Eggs
Place the eggs in a small pot, add cold water to cover by one inch, add a pinch of salt, and bring to a simmer. Simmer two minutes, turn off the heat, cover the pot and set the pot off the heat for 10 minutes. Remove the eggs and plunge into cold water. When the eggs are cold to the touch, peel, rinse and slice each egg into 5 or 6 slices. Season with salt and pepper.
