Pan bagnat
- Published: 28 Jun 23
- Updated: 18 Mar 24
Pan bagnat – essentially a salad niçoise in a crusty roll – is a taste of southern France in a sandwich. It’s the perfect thing to take on a picnic as it’s best made in advance and wrapped up, to really let the dressing soak into the bread. We know we’ll be making it all summer long.
Pan bagnat translates into English as ‘bathed bread’, when traditionally the sandwich was made with stale bread, which needed a wet filling to soften it into something edible again. This is why salting your tomato is a key step; it draws out the liquid, creating a natural dressing for the filling. Gotta love a bit of science!
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Ingredients
- 1 medium ripe tomato
- 2 thick slices onion
- 1 medium free-range egg
- 30g green beans, trimmed
- 25g pitted black olives, roughly chopped
- 80g tin tuna in oil
- 2 anchovy fillets, drained and roughly chopped
- 2 basil sprigs, leaves picked
- 2 crusty rolls
Method
- Cut the tomato into thick slices widthways, putting it in a bowl and sprinkling with flaky salt and plenty of freshly cracked black pepper. Put the onion slices in a bowl of cold water to help remove some of the astringency. Set both aside whilst you prepare the rest of the sandwich.
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Cook the egg in it for 8 minutes, then lift out and run under cold water to chill. Add the green beans to the water, cook for 4 minutes, then run under cold water too. Roughly chop the beans and add to the tomatoes along with the olives. Peel and thickly slice the egg.
- Drain the oil in the tin of tuna into a separate bowl. Add the tuna, anchovies and basil leaves to the tomatoes and stir to combine. Drain the onion slices and add these too, then drizzle in a little of the reserved tuna oil – just enough to coat the ingredients. Season with a little salt and lots of freshly cracked black pepper.
- Slice open the bread rolls and put the sliced tomatoes and onion on the base of the sandwiches, followed by the sliced egg. Spoon over the rest of the tuna mixture on top. Spoon a little of the leftover dressing onto the bread lids and then close the sandwiches. Wrap the sandwiches up tightly in baking paper, foil or beeswax wrap then put in the fridge and top with something heavy (such as a tray of tins). Leave for a few hours or overnight for the best results to let the dressing soak into the bread.
- Recipe from June 2023 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 391kcals
- Fat
- 13g (2.5g saturated)
- Protein
- 22g
- Carbohydrates
- 45g (5.7g sugars)
- Fibre
- 4.4g
- Salt
- 2.6g
delicious. tips
The French use large, round crusty bread rolls which aren’t too soft (so they don’t disintegrate with the wet filling). If you can’t find these, a small baguette or ciabatta are good substitutions. Slightly stale bread works well too, as the dressing will soften it up.
Whilst it can be made and eaten straight away, the pan bagnat is definitely worth making an hour or two in advance, making it a great picnic or beach food.
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