Pan bagnat recipe - or how to avoid wet bread with your wet bread

I thought after I'd finished MoFo, I'd want to put my feet up and steer well clear of all things blogging related. Turns out, I just can't quit you, MoFo – I'm drawn to taking pictures of my dinner and then posting them on the internet like a moth to a flame.

My last MoFo post was about sandwiches – I got that one into my English dishes theme on a technicality as they're named after the Earl of Sandwich, although I doubt he was the first man in history to think of putting stuff between two slices of bread. 

So, while England is putting egg or cucumber in its sandwiches, France is putting all manner of vegetables in its loaves and then squishing the life out of them.

It's a type of sandwich known as pan bagnat, which translates, rather charmlessly, into 'wet bread'. It comes from the city of Nice, in France, and typically involves putting a load of grilled provencal type veggies (courgettes, peppers, that sort of thing) along with some herbs and olive oil into a slightly hollowed out roll and then wrapping it up and putting weights on top to give it extra heft and flavour.

You can either make little roll ones, or one big loaf sized one, but either way you need a not-too-soft –and-squishy bread otherwise the veggie juices will make it all soggy. (it's called wet bread, but you don't want it too wet – that makes sense right?!) Something like a ciabatta or a pain de champagne should do the trick.

I think normally the herbs that get put in pan bagnat are things like basil and parsley, but seeing as I only had sage to hand when I was making it, that's what I used. Cooking hint: don't use sage, use basil or parsley! 

Pan bagnat

Makes two rolls

Ingredients
Two peppers
Half a courgette
Two large bread rolls
1tbsp of olive oil
1tbsp of red wine vinegar
Small garlic clove
Two tbsp of chopped green or black olives
Two tsp of chopped capers
6-inch section of celery, finely chopped
One small carrot, grated
Basil leaves, torn (parsley would also work. Sage really doesn't)

How you do it
Deseed two peppers and slice into thick strips. Cut the half a courgette into fat slices, and lay both peppers and courgettes on a baking tray.

Brush the courgettes with a bit of oil and put under a hot grill until the peppers are beginning to char and the courgettes are cooked (you'll need to flip them over half way through cooking.)

One they're cooked, pop a teatowel over the top and leave it to cool.  Once they're hot enough to handle, remove the skins from the peppers.

Mix up the capers, celery, carrot and olives and put to one side.

Meanwhile, slice the bread rolls about one third of the way down and pull out some of the bread from the larger bottom piece. Make sure you leave a centimetre and a half of crust all round though - otherwise the roll will get soggy.

Stir together the oil and vinegar, and using a pasty brush, paint it around the hollowed out inside of the roll, then rub the small garlic clove around it.

Then layer the ingredients: add some peppers, then courgette, then a bit of salt and pepper and a basil leaf, then some caper mix, then some more peppers, courgettes, seasoning etc etc until the bread is full. (You could add in some slice tomato too, if you wanted.)

Then wrap in foil, plastic or what have you, and put some weight on it: I used a plate with a can or two on top. Leave alone for a couple of hours while it does its thing. Eat.