This is the recipe that my husband chose for Father’s Day lunch. Given that it was a hot summer day, a cold sandwich seemed to fit the bill.

“Pronounced phan-bahn-yah, the ingredients in the Nicoise-style sandwich are a good match for soft, crusty ciabatta bread”. We had a fresh tuna steak so we grilled that for the base of this sandwich instead of canned tuna. The spread is made from mayonnaise, sour cream, fresh basil, lemon zest and juice. The other lovely fillings to this sandwich are: kalamata olives, capers, arugula, radicchio, hard boiled eggs, Persian cucumbers and red onion.

The recipe states this 14 ounce loaf of ciabatta bread would serve 4 but we thought that was too much so we made 6 servings from this loaf. It was delicious with many layers of flavor and texture. The fresh tuna was a nice touch. It was given thumbs up by our guests.

What I would change about the recipe is the amount of lemon juice in the spread. It calls for the juice of one lemon which can vary highly. I used the whole lemon then tasted the spread and it was very lemony and thin. I would recommend adding lemon juice one tablespoon at a time. It also calls for the juice of a whole lemon in the tuna but I left it out afraid that it would be too much lemon flavor. Of  course the sandwich as a whole was not overwhelmingly lemon so my fears were not realized. I was also afraid to add to much spread but due to the thin consistency it was quickly absorbed into the bread. I used maybe half of the spread but I guess I could have been more generous as my guests said it would be good with mayonnaise.

This recipe is available on Curtis Stone’s website and in Good Food, Good Life.