Signature Sabich
From Baghdad to Tel Aviv, by Yohan Attia
Prep time : 30 min · 4 pitas
Sabich was born in the kitchens of the Iraqi Jewish community, where Saturday mornings traditionally featured fried eggplants and slow-cooked hard-boiled eggs prepared the day before, since cooking was forbidden during Shabbat. During the mass emigration to Israel in the 1950s, these families brought their Shabbat breakfast with them. In the 1960s, in Ramat Gan, a man named Sabich Halabi reportedly had the idea of stuffing it all into a pita, giving birth to the sandwich that bears his name today. Now an institution of Israeli street food, sabich is the perfect example of exile cuisine: humble, generous, and able to turn a religious constraint into a masterpiece of flavors.
Ingredients
- Fresh pitas
- Eggplants: 1 large per pita
- Fresh garlic: 1 whole head (to confit)
- Quality olive oil
- Eggs: 1 per pita
- Tahini (thina), base of the sauce
- Lemon: 2 pieces (juice)
- Red onion: 1 piece
- Sumac: 1 teaspoon
- Red cabbage: 1/4 of a cabbage
- Cucumber & tomato: 2 of each
- Hummus (homemade or quality)
- Harissa
- Fresh herbs: mint and flat-leaf parsley
- Sea salt flakes, freshly ground pepper
Method
- Confit eggplants Cut the eggplants into 1 cm slices. Brush generously with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt flakes and bake at 180°C until fully confit, the flesh should melt under a knife.
- Garlic confit Peel the garlic cloves and place them in a small saucepan of olive oil. Confit on very low heat for 15 minutes, the oil should never simmer. The cloves must turn tender and golden.
- Cucumber & tomato salad Cut cucumbers and tomatoes into regular cubes of the same size, that is the signature of this Israeli salad. Season with salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix just before serving.
- Red cabbage Slice the cabbage as thinly as possible, with a knife or a mandolin. Season with salt, pepper and olive oil. Massage lightly with your hands so it tenderizes and releases its juices.
- The thina In a bowl, pour the tahini with a generous pinch of sea salt flakes and the lemon juice. Mix while adding cold water gradually, in small amounts. The mixture will first thicken then loosen, adjust the water until you get a coating, slightly runny texture.
- Hard-boiled eggs Drop the eggs into already boiling water and cook for at least 11 minutes, here, the more cooked the better. Cool immediately in ice water to stop cooking, then peel.
- Fresh herbs Pull the mint and parsley leaves one by one. Tear them roughly with your fingers rather than with a knife, tearing preserves the essential oils and avoids oxidation.
- Red onion with sumac Slice the red onion as thinly as possible. Season generously with lemon juice, without restraint, and sumac. The lemon will "cook" the onion and soften its sharpness within minutes.
- Assembly Open the pita. Spread hummus on the bottom, add a touch of harissa to your desired heat. Layer from bottom to top: confit eggplants, egg sliced into rounds, cucumber-tomato salad, red cabbage, sumac onion, fresh herbs. Drizzle generously with thina before serving, truly generously.
Chef's tips
- The eggplant, heart of the sandwich: don't skimp on oil or cooking time. An undercooked eggplant is bitter and rubbery, slow-confit it turns silky and sweet. It carries the whole sandwich.
- Balance of textures: a great sabich plays on four textures at once, the softness of the eggplant, the crunch of cabbage and onion, the creaminess of hummus and thina, the tenderness of the egg. Don't sacrifice any of them.
- The garlic confit oil, liquid gold: do not throw it out. Filter it and keep it refrigerated, it will perfume vinaigrettes, pastas, toasts and purees for weeks.
- Respect the pita: warm it 20 seconds in the oven or in a dry pan before stuffing. A cold pita cracks at the first bite, a warm pita opens up and welcomes the filling without tearing.
- Filling order matters: always start with the creamy elements (hummus, harissa) at the bottom, then the warm elements, then the fresh ones, and finish with thina on top. This order guarantees every bite carries all the flavors.
- The Shabbat trick: every component, except the herbs, can be prepared the day before. A sabich is never better than when assembled at the last minute from ready-made components.