Rachael's Tuna Pan Bagnat

Here we are: it's 9:24 on Saturday night and I'm cuddled up on my couch with my cats, a glass of gin and tonic, and watching Gilmore Girls. Where's my husband you ask? Well, check out his new blog to find out! Sneaky me, huh?

Anyway, so tonight instead of going out and getting food, I decided to cook some of the $80.00 food I bought. According to Google, Pan Bagnat is a sandwich popularized in the streets of Nice, France. I'm not sure if these ingredients are traditionally French...or Provincial but the sandwich was pretty good.

Rachael's Tuna Pan Bagnat

1 Italian Bread loaf
1/2 C Kalamata olives, halved
2 cans tuna in oil, drained
1 can sardines, drained and chopped
3 Tbsp capers, drained
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/2 C sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
 1/2 C fresh parsley, chopped
3 sprigs rosemary, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Coarse black pepper, to taste
3 Tbsp olive oil
Optional: salt

Allow me to preface this by saying I hate canned meats. I find them vile, metallic, and usually smell and resemble dog or cat food. Are you hungry yet? No? I can't possibly imagine why. Anyway, so given my reservations about canned meats, I was quite nervous about using canned fish for this recipe. It did turn out surprisingly good. Well, when I added enough vinegar to get rid of the fish taste.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and toast up the loaf of bread whole for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow the loaf to cool before cutting the bread in half lengthwise and setting aside.

In a bowl, combine drained tuna (broken apart with a fork), drained and chopped sardines, and basically everything else and toss. Do a taste check and then load up the filling into the Italian loaf and cut the loaf into sandwich-appropriate sizes and eat.

Like I said, I added as many flavors to mask the fishy, metallic and generally unpleasant flavors associated with canned meats.

While Nate is away I decided to have an exclusively vegetarian diet. It is cheaper, it's better for the environment and will make me feel healthier so look ahead for vegetarian recipes! Enjoy your Saturday night, readers! Hopefully you're less pathetic than I.