Pan bagnat is a traditional sandwich from Nice.
The name comes from the local Niçois dialect and literally means “wet bread,” referring to the fact that it is soaked in oil.
Once made to reuse stale bread, it has become a traditional street food of the French Riviera city.
It consists of two slices of pain de campagne, a traditional French whole grain bread (diameter 6-8 inches), filled with salade niçoise, a salad made of tomatoes and other raw vegetables (artichokes, bell peppers, lettuce, radishes, celery, pickles) Niçois black olives, hard-boiled eggs, onions, salted or oil-packed anchovies, and/or tuna, dressed with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
The sandwich is mainly filled with tuna, anchovies, sliced tomato, olives, hard-boiled eggs, olive oil, salt, and pepper, but it can also contain arugula, basil, artichokes, and red wine vinegar, or any elements you prefer from the salade niçoise.
Another Niçois specialty on the blog:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 1 sandwich
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: French
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1 pain de campagne
- 1 tomato
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 hard-boiled egg
- to taste tuna
- 2 fillets oil-packed anchovies (or salted)
- to taste pitted black olives
- to taste olive oil
- to taste salt and pepper
Steps
Split the round bread in half horizontally, remove some of the crumb if necessary.
Rub the inside of each half with a clove of garlic and generously soak it with olive oil, tomato juice, then salt and pepper before adding the Niçoise salad ingredients.
Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with more olive oil.
Close the sandwich, wrap it in aluminum foil for at least 1 hour.
If you can’t find Niçois black olives, you can use Taggiasca olives from nearby Liguria.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
What is the Ligurian dish that resembles Salade niçoise?
The dish, with some variations, is typical of the Ligurian coastal area, where it is called condiglione (in Genoese “condiggion” – pronounced “cundiggiùn”, in Ponentine Ligurian “cundijùn”), with the possible addition of boiled potatoes and green beans and without artichokes.
What type of bread is Pain de campagne?
A large round loaf made with natural leavening or brewer’s yeast.
The more traditional versions are made with a combination of white flour with whole wheat and/or rye flour, water, yeast, and salt.
