These pan bagnat tartines bring me back to a lovely place in time.
I have such fond memories of the summers we spent living on the French Riviera, near a coastal town called Antibes. The kids were small and every weekend we’d bring them to a super touristy yet charming beach called La Salis. I adored everything about it: the water games, the hustle and bustle, the beautiful view of the Cap d’Antibes, the gossipy beach conversations, the smell of sun tan lotion…and of course, lunch. We used to get “Pan bagnat” from one of the beach snack shops.
The quintessential “Pan bagnat” consists of a big round white bun drenched in an olive oil dressing and filled with all the ususal provencal suspects (olives, basil, bell peppers, anchovies, tomatoes, tuna) plus a couple of essentials like hard boiled egg, celery, tiny green fava beans and radish. The half-hour we would sit there on the beach, eating these messy, oily, delicious sandwiches was pure bliss, truly a “life-doesn’t-get-better-than-this” moment.
Now and again in Dubai, when I want to remind myself of those summers in Antibes, I make a version of “Pan bagnat”. It isn’t quite like the original – it’s an open-faced copycat where I omit the fava beans and used sourdough bread instead of the big white buns – but believe you me, every mouthful is still pure bliss.
PS. Since I last wrote this post, we have actually moved back to southern France and the pan bagnats at La Salis are still the best.
Makes 4 tartines (2 people)
Ingredients
- 4 slices of sourdough bread
- 1 can of chunked tuna, drained
- 4 anchovy fillets
- 12 black olives, pitted and chopped or sliced (you could also substitute these with a few tbsps of tapenade)
- 1 branch of celery, diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 or 2 tomatoes, sliced
- 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
- 12 fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 4 radishes, sliced
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp good quality red wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Toast the slices of sourdough bread
- Prepare the vinaigrette: in a bowl, whisk together the oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
- Put the two tbsp of the vinaigrette on each slice of toasted bread. Top with a quarter of each ingredient: tuna, anchovy, olive, celery, pepper, tomato slices, boiled egg slices, basil and radish slices. Drizzle with remaining dressing and serve.
