Nothing says lunch like a nicely made sandwich, tightly packed and snuggly wrapped. Unfortunately, the ready-to-buy options are often unoriginal or unsatisfying (the recent outcry over a major high‑street chain’s paltry fillings – think half a slice of gently curling ham, or a missing slice of bread – made us laugh). We’ve written about exotic sandwiches such as sabich and pav bhaji before, but those are just the tip of the iceberg (and that’s not the lettuce kind).
• Pan bagnat is a provencal classic that essentially stuffs the ingredients for a salad nicoise into a baguette. Summer in a sandwich: what’s not to like? To make enough filling for two, finely chop ¼ red onion and stoneless black olives, and quarter 8 baby plum tomatoes. Mix ½ tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar and 1 tsp dijon mustard. Add 4 anchovies. Mash together with the back of a spoon. Add onion, olives, tomatoes, 2 tbsp capers, a small tin of tuna, a small handful of torn basil leaves and lots of black pepper, and mix together. Stuff into two small baguettes (rip out a bit of the doughy middle, if you like) and wrap tightly. Add slices of an almost-hard-boiled egg (7 mins in boiling water) just before eating.
• Ful medames (stewed beans) is a popular Egyptian breakfast dish, but stuffed into a pitta it makes a fine lunch. For two portions, heat a tin of drained broad or borlotti beans in a pan with a small splash of water until bubbling. Turn off and add 1 tbsp olive oil, the juice of ½ lemon, 1 garlic clove mashed to a paste with some sea salt, 1 tsp ground cumin, a large pinch of chilli flakes and a grinding of black pepper. ix and mash together. Place in a plastic container. At lunchtime, spoon into a halved toasted pitta. Optional toppings include chopped hard-boiled egg, diced tomato, cucumber and radish tossed with lemon juice, pickles (eg, red cabbage) and a drizzle of tahini or yoghurt.
• Try a Mexican torta. Fry some chorizo and add to a large roll with some red onions, tomato, avocado, sour cream and some black beans. To make it extra authentic, make a batch of refried beans for spooning in. Use up the leftover beans with steak for dinner, or in enchiladas with chicken, rice and cooked peppers. To make simple refried beans, sweat an onion in a pan, add cumin, smoked paprika and cayenne pepper, followed by 2 tins of black beans, 400ml water, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Simmer until much of the water has evaporated, then mush some of the beans with a wooden spoon.
• There’s nothing like an Italian panino with homemade pesto – having it fresh makes all the difference. Remove the stalks from a bunch of kale leaves and put in a blender with a garlic clove, pine nuts, olive oil, grana padano cheese and lemon juice. Spread the pesto on a slab of bread. Add sliced mozzarella and cured ham. Use the leftover pesto on crostini as a starter, in pasta, or as a chicken marinade.
