Should you’ve ever been to Good, you should have encountered the pan bagnat, that metropolis’s trademark sandwich: a big roll filled with tuna, tomatoes, black olives, hard-boiled egg, anchovies, inexperienced pepper, inexperienced onion, radishes and basil. It’s like a salade niçoise in a bun. The town is so pleased with the sandwich that residents have fashioned an affiliation to defend and advertise, with an online web page entitled, no much less, The Official Website of the Free State of Pan Bagnat.
Pan bagnat / Pan bagnat sandwich from Good
On that website they’ve posted what they name the official recipe, which might be similar to mine besides that it has no inexperienced pepper and notes that child broad beans and/or little artichokes could also be added in season. However beware. The location provides a warning: ‘In no case could every other ingredient be added to the genuine Pan Bagnat of Good underneath penalty of making a vulgar vegetable sandwich.’ A vulgar veggie sandwich? Actually? How do you say oy vey in French?
So let’s speak about authenticity. In keeping with meals historians, the unique pan bagnat contained no tuna, which on the time — the nineteenth century — was thought of a meals for the wealthy. The pan bagnat was a poor man’s meal, usually made with stale bread (‘pan’ in Provençal) that was bathed (‘bagnat’) with somewhat water to melt it. Today, the rolls ‘bathe’ in drizzled olive oil and juice from the tomatoes. And whereas the so-called official recipe could not embody inexperienced pepper, it’s arduous to search out one other recipe with out it.
I first encountered the pan bagnat when, as a 19-year-old pupil, I discovered myself digging for pre-Neanderthal man in a cave exterior Good for the final three weeks of a summer time examine program. Within the night after work, the opposite pupil diggers and I might stroll into city alongside the corniche, the attractive coastal highway overlooking the Mediterranean. Usually as not, we’d choose up a pan bagnat for supper. The sandwich is sufficiently big to be a meal in itself.
Now that spring is lastly turning sunny and heat in Paris, it felt like the proper time to attempt to make a pan bagnat at house. Downside No. 1: The place to search out the bread? Pan bagnat rolls measure 6-8 inches (15-20 cm) in diameter, i.e. as massive as or greater than a jumbo hamburger bun. They’re crusty exterior, tender inside, with an olive oil tang. I had by no means seen one at a Paris bakery, however a fast on-line search revealed that not less than one Paris baker makes them, and by luck the store — Tout Autour du Ache — is a brief stroll from my place.
Fortunately I phoned forward, because the pan bagnat rolls needed to be made to order. The following day I collected 4 stunning crusty rolls. The remainder was straightforward. I made a sauce of olive oil, garlic and basil, boiled an egg, sliced the veggies, sliced the roll and layered on the elements, drizzing with olive oil sometimes. In a really brief whereas the venerable sandwich was prepared.
What to do if there is no such thing as a such baker in your neighborhood? Improvise! You can also make your pan bagnat on a Kaiser roll, a pita, a piece of a crusty French loaf. Should you don’t broadcast your deviation from authenticity, the protection committee won’t ever hear about it…
For the report, regarding sandwiches in a bun, the venerable pan bagnat predates the venerable hamburger by not less than a century, though the origin of neither is completely clear. After I instructed an Italian pal I’d be posting the pan bagnat recipe on my French cooking website, she bristled: ‘However that’s an Italian sandwich!’ Since Good was once a part of Italy, she could have a degree. However who cares? The true level is that the sandwich is a deal with.
A part of the magic of the pan bagnat is that its style modifications in keeping with the climate. It’s finest outside on a scorching sunny day — on the seaside, on a ship, at a picnic. Deliver alongside a bottle of chilled rosé and loads of napkins to catch the olive oil. The opposite a part of the magic is that, wherever you’re once you chew in, the Mediterranean is not going to be distant.
Completely happy cooking.
