This post may be a bit unnecessary, except for bragging rights on the fact that I made it from scratch with tuna salad that I made from scratch on bread that I made from scratch. Though there are a few useful tips so keep reading.

Ingredients

Tuna Salad
Cheese (I used shredded mozzarella, because that’s what I had in the house, but you can use Gouda or Fontina or Cheddar etc)
Mayonnaise
two slices of bread. (I used homemade challah, though sourdough or rye or whole wheat are great substitutes)

On each slice of bread, spread one side lightly with mayonnaise. Place this side face-down on the pan (old trick/secret from my grandma — tastes better than butter and makes a perfect grilled cheese every time!)

Keep the heat low! You do not want to burn your bread before you’ve melted the cheese.

On one slice of the bread, pile the tuna salad. On the other slice, place the cheese.

Making the sandwich open-face has several advantages. One: you can slip things like tomatoes or lettuce into the sandwich after it’s cooked, instead of making the lettuce wilt, or the tomatoes mushy! Two: If the cheese still hasn’t melted, but the bread is brown enough, you can move the cheese-slice of bread to the toaster oven to finish melting the cheese without heating up the tuna fish, which is what I did today. Once the bread was browned to my liking, I placed the tuna half onto a plate and the cheese half into the toaster oven on a sheet of aluminum foil, to catch drips. Once the cheese melts, place that half face down onto the tuna half.

Pictured with a simple tomato salad: cherry tomatoes, sliced in half, lightly dressed in balsamic vinegar with a pinch of salt and a fresh torn basil leaf.