Tunisian Sandwich (Bonito, Cured Lemon & Harissa Mayo Sandwich) Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Author Notes

This sandwich is guaranteed to wake up your mouth. When my daughter came back from gap year in Israel, she introduced me to this colorful sandwich, commonly served at Aroma cafes which can be found throughout Israel. I once sampled it at Aroma in Jerusalem. Replicating it at home, I rubbed garlic on the face and crusts of the bread for extra flavor and added a sun-dried harissa mayo, arugula, and tomato. The spices and technique for the harissa is adapted from Tastefood's recipe. You could use jarred harissa or even sriracha, but homemade is just so good. —creamtea

What You'll Need

Ingredients

• 2 ouncesdry-packed sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
  
• 1 teaspooneach whole coriander and cumin seeds
  
• ¹/₂ teaspooncaraway seeds
  
• 2 long narrow hot red fresh peppers (or any hot pepper you favor), seeded, trimmed and coarsely chopped
  
• about 8 Fresno peppers, seeded, trimmed and coarsely chopped
  
• 3 fat fresh garlic cloves, coarsely chopped plus one garlic clove, unpeeled, cut in half diagonally
  
• ¹/₄ cupextra-virgin olive oil
  
• kosher salt to taste
  
• ¹/₂ teaspoonground Aleppo or other mildly spicy ground red pepper
  
• 2 thick slices of crusty sourdough or country bread, preferably hand-sliced
  
• 1 tablespoonprepared mayonnaise
  
• 1 squirt lemon juice
  
• 1 hard-cooked egg, sliced lengthwise in an egg slicer
  
• ¹/₂ can (~2 oz. total) best-quality tuna in olive oil such as Ortiz Bonito del Norte
  
• ¹/₄ cured Moroccan-style lemon, rinsed and diced
  
• 1 handful washed baby arugula as garnish
  
• sliced very ripe tomato
  
• 3 thin slices ripe avocado
  
• 2-3 pitted marinated black or red-black olives (optional) such as kalamata