Pan-bagnat is a French sandwich made with nicoise salad on a crunchy bun. The salad includes leafy greens, olives, hard-boiled eggs, and tuna. The exact ingredients are debated, but the sandwich is a specialty in Nice.
A pan-bagnat is a kind of sandwich invented in France. It’s a specialty in Nice, which is a city in the south of France that borders the Mediterranean. The sandwich is made with nicoise salad on a crunchy bun. The bread that is used for the sandwich is usually hearty, artisan-style, so that the texture is crunchy and chewy. The bun is traditionally round, although some variations of the bun use different shapes of bread.
A niçoise salad, the filling of a pan-bagnat, is made from leafy greens such as watercress, arugula or arugula dressed with olives – particularly olive niçoise – and hard-boiled eggs. Sometimes quail eggs are used instead of chicken eggs. The salad can be topped with other greens including artichoke hearts, raw red peppers, steamed green beans, and shallots. The main protein in the dish is tuna. In some modern variations of the dish, seared tuna is used instead of canned tuna. The salad is often garnished with canned anchovies and dressed with a Dijon vinaigrette.
When a niçoise salad is served on crusty bread to make a pan-bagnat, the ingredients are usually layered on the bun. In a traditional Niçoise salad, there are usually more greens and vegetables than tuna. The ratio is reversed in a pan-bagnat that usually includes more tuna with just a garnish of the greens that normally appear in a salad Nicoise. Also, while the olives, anchovies, and Dijon dressing can be separated in salad niçoise, these three ingredients can be blended together for use on a pan-bagnat.
Many people who take French cooking seriously argue over the exact ingredients that should be used to make a proper pan-bagnat. Some argue over the use of lettuce or leafy greens and whether they should be used on the sandwich. Additionally, there is a common variation on the salade niçoise which includes an addition of boiled potatoes to the salad. This variation is quite common in American restaurants. It is widely accepted that this is not the original recipe.
As there are variations in the recipe for the Niçoise salad, there are therefore variations in the recipe for the pan-bagnat. While most sandwiches are made without boiled potatoes, some are. It is also possible to find variations of the sandwich that include sweet corn as an ingredient.
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