What is a picnic? When I was a kid, it meant going to Crystal Springs in Griffith Park, finding a patch of lawn in the shade. My mom would lay out a tablecloth big enough for the food and for us to sit on, then she would unpack an actual picnic basket. The food in the basket was mostly simple sandwiches, some snacky stuff like chips or pretzels, and cut fruit. Now we think of picnics as occurring in the backyard, as well as in a public space. We can sit at picnic tables and use available grills, or we do the classic SoCal thing and picnic at the beach, the sand an unavoidable textural element to whatever we’re eating.
Last week, Good Food concentrated on dishes from coastal areas of the Mediterranean, and I still have a desire to eat that kind of food and prepare it for friends. What I like about these eating traditions is that there is a healthy amount of snacky grazing that makes a meal but provides a lot of variety. If you’re interested in building your picnic around the easily portable sandwich, I’d like to pitch the niçoise pan bagnat. Cookbook author Rosa Jackson describes it as “salade niçoise in a bun,” and that includes the “dressing,” which in this case is the olive oil and vinegar you drizzle on the bread, the move that gives the sandwich its name. You can also choose to combine all the ingredients in a bowl and dress them with the oil and vinegar, and let the melange of juices merge with the bread.
Traditionally, pan bagnat is wrapped, then set in the refrigerator under weights so the sandwich can meld, which makes it easier to eat. Photo courtesy of David Lebovitz.
According to the organization that maintains authenticity in this particular sandwich, the filling must be ripe tomatoes, radishes, green onions, long green peppers, tuna packed in oil and/or anchovies, hard-boiled eggs, basil, and black olives. I give you permission to riff. Jackson adds sliced celery. Because the bread will be “bathed” by the ingredients, you need a type that will be sturdy enough to handle it. No one wants a sandwich falling apart at a picnic. Kaiser rolls make a good base, hamburger buns do not. A baguette might have too tough a crust, a ciabatta would be perfect. Jackson builds her pan bagnat on the bread, starting with slices of ripe tomatoes, and layering the rest of the ingredients. Many people tightly wrap the sandwiches in plastic wrap, and put them in the refrigerator topped with weights so that the sandwich ingredients meld together. You could actually make them the night before.
Another picnic idea from Jackson is ratatouille, which we’ve talked about before. The vegetable stew is a true celebration of late summer ingredients, and is delicious cold or at room temperature, eaten with great bread. Cookbook author and favorite newsletter writer David Lebovitz was inspired by Rosa Jackson’s book Niçoise to do a deep dive into pan bagnat.
Rosa Jackson’s ratatouille is the perfect food for a picnic accompanied by good bread. Photo by Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen.
All you’d need to accompany that ratatouille with is Georgina Hayden’s figs with anari (ricotta) and rosemary. She mixes together drained ricotta with grated Greek sheep’s milk cheese kefalotyri (you can use pecorino), lemon zest, salt, and pepper, then stuffs the mixture into fresh figs cut into a cross from the top. She drizzles honey over them. But for a picnic, I would add the honey into the ricotta for ease of eating. Finish with a light sprinkle of finely chopped rosemary.
Another of Georgina’s dishes from her book Greekish that I think is well suited to picnicking is her chickpea and herb keftedes. It’s similar to falafel in that the chickpeas are soaked, then ground with soft herbs. But the Greek version adds cooked potato to the mix, which makes the bites more tender. Bring tzatziki or plain yogurt to dip. And if you don’t want to cook, go buy a Greek spiral filo pie and bake it the morning of your picnic. They’re delicious, easy to find in the market, and come with a variety of fillings.
The two cookbooks that inspired me to talk about these dishes are Greekish by Georgina Hayden and Niçoise by Rosa Jackson.