Sicilian Tuna Salad Sandwich on Homemade Italian-Style Bread

This Sicilian Tuna Salad Sandwich will have you dreaming of picnics in the islands of southern Italy. Pack this sandwich, a bottle of wine, a blanket, and a corkscrew, and find a spot on the beach or a park to enjoy the remains of summer.

This Sicilian Tuna Salad Sandwich is a fun and unique way to prepare tuna salad.

This tuna salad sandwich is made with canned tuna.... but not just any canned tuna.. you'll need oil packed tuna. I wanted to keep this authentic, so I headed to my favorite international supermarket and found this amazing Sardinian tuna in olive oil. It was delicious.

Because I'm an ingredient hoarder, I ended up spending more than I should have on canned oil-packed tuna to experiment with the different brands, including the national brands. While I adored this Sardinian Tuna, I can also recommend this Wild Planet Tuna, which you can find at Costco or Whole Foods. If you want to be really fancy, try this brand.

Another great recipe for using canned tuna is Salade Niçoise. 

As a bread geek, I made my own Italian bread. It's super easy to make, but if you don't want to make your own, you can buy a loaf of Italian bread and hollow it out to make the sandwich.

This is a big freaking sandwich. You can pack it up as a whole sandwich to slice later, or slice the sandwich in advance and wrap up the sections individually.

This month, the Fish Friday Foodies, hosted by Wendy, are making picnic fare. After the recipe, be sure to check out the rest of the Picnic Fare Fish recipes.

tuna, sandwich, salad

Lunch, picnic, sandwich

Italian

Yield: 4 servingsAuthor: Karen Kerr

Sicilian Tuna Salad Sandwich on Homemade Italian-Style Bread

ingredients

Italian Bread

• 3 cups (16 1/2 ounces) bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup (8 ounces) mild lager beer, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) room temperature water
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Tuna Salad

• 3 oil packed sun dried tomatoes (6 halves)
• 1 12 ounce section of an Italian bread
• 12 ounces of oil packed tuna
• 10 ounces of baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons of capers
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced

instructions

Italian Bread

1. Whisk the flour, yeast, and the salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer. In a large (4-cup) measuring cup, whisk together the beer, water, and oil. 
2. Turn on the mixer with the dough hook at low speed, and slowly add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture until you have a cohesive dough, about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and knead with the dough hook for about 8 minutes. 
3. Move the dough to the counter and form it into a ball. Place it into an oiled bowl or dough rising bucket, cover, and let rise until doubled, about 60 to 90 minutes. 
4. Line a pizza peel with parchment paper. Turn the dough out onto your work surface and form it into a 10 inch square. Roll the dough into a loaf and place it onto the parchment lined peel, seam side down. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until it has rise at least 50 per cent. About 30 to 60 minutes. 
5. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a baking stone. 
6. When the dough is ready, mist it with water, and make a 1/2 inch deep slash down the middle of the loaf. Slide the loaf onto the baking stone and bake until the crust is a deep golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. 

Sicilian Tuna Salad Sandwich

1. Cut the ends off of the bread to make a 12 ounce loaf. Split the bread in half lengthwise, and remove some of the bread to make more room for the filling. Brush the interior of the bread with some of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes. 
2. Heat a large skillet and add the tuna, including the oil, and the sun dried tomatoes. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes, until wilted. Add the capers and salt and pepper to taste. 
3. Pile the tuna salad onto the bread, add the sliced hard boiled eggs, and press down firmly with the top of the bread. Cut into slices and serve. 

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2018/08/sicilian-tuna-salad-sandwich-on.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

This recipe was adapted from the book, Fish without a Doubt.

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