This Pan Bagnat Is Our Current Work Lunch Obsession

This sandwich is so wonderfully salty—from the fish to the veggies, nothing in here is short on flavor. The original pan bagnat is a French specialty—basically a tuna niçoise in sandwich form. It’s a great make-ahead sandwich, because the more everything sits and hangs out in its own various juices, the better it gets.

Hard boil your eggs, then make the olive relish: mix the anchovies, garlic, capers, vinegar, and mustard in a bowl. Add the onions and olives and let it sit until the onion gets soft. Nothing needs to be cut up too precisely, just a rough chop is fine. Season everything with salt and pepper, then add olive oil—the fat in it will help cut some of the saltiness.

Make sure you use canned or jarred tuna that comes oil-packed and in chunks, not ground up (we like Tonnino). Put it all in a bowl, and give it some serious love with lemon, oil, salt, and pepper.

Next, tear up your herbs so you’re left with mostly big leaves, almost like a salad. Add them to the relish and spread it over a baguette that you’ve sliced open but not entirely in two pieces—think Subway style. Top the relish with the tuna, tomato, peppers, and the hard-boiled egg (more fat to balance out the salt). Add oil and season to your liking.

The next part is what makes this sandwich so delicious: Wrap the sandwich tightly in foil and put something heavy on it. A cast-iron skillet works well, for example. Let that hang out for at least 10 minutes, so that the relish soaks into the bread and all the elements in the sandwich co-mingle. Even after it’s been wrapped and squished, you can keep the sandwich inside the foil overnight and until you get to work the next day, making it a perfect al desko meal.

Pan Bagnat

—As told to Anya Tchoupakov