My Goals and Discoveries
Cohesive, evenly distributed filling
A large baguette provides room for the filling. Processing the olives, capers, anchovies, and herbs into a coarse “salad” helps hold them together, and applying the mixture in two layers in the sandwich distributes its flavors.
Saturated (not soggy) crumb
Brushing the bread's cut surfaces with olive oil helps prevent it from absorbing too much moisture from the filling. We also thoroughly drain the tuna and tomato slices and stir the vinaigrette into the olive salad, which thickens the dressing so that it doesn’t oversaturate the crumb.
Compact, easy-to-eat sandwich
Scooping out the crumb from the bottom half of the baguette creates a trough for more filling. Pressing the sandwich for at least an hour under a heavy Dutch oven tamps down the filling so that the whole package is compact enough to bite through.