Tuna Melt Recipe with Tomato Relish (2024)

This Tuna Melt recipe is served open-faced and covered in a fresh tomato relish. This amazing meal will transport you to your favorite deli with delicious homemade tuna salad and ooey-gooey mozzarella cheese, all on top of freshlytoasted french bread! This would also taste amazing on my homemadeAmish White Bread!

TUNA MELT WITH TOMATO RELISH

Every deli has a classic tuna melt sandwich. Thisopen-facedtuna melt recipe takes a unique spin on this deli classic with the addition of fresh tomato relish. Feel confident that this is one that you can make from the comfort of our own homeany time of year! We like it in the hot summers and cool Minnesota winters. It is quick and easy to prepare, and the kidsjust love it! This sandwich tastes amazing with a heaping bowl of the best ever homemadetomato soup!

TUNA MELT RECIPE

There are a few things that I highlyrecommend when making this tuna melt recipe, and there are a few variables that you can change up.

Tuna –For this recipe, we use canned tuna. You can use the can or the foil packs, but make sure to carefully drain the liquid before mixing in the additional ingredients. Too much moisture will make this sandwich runny.

Cheese– We used mozzarella for this recipe, but you can change this up. Some that we have tried and love are Havarti, Muenster, Cheddar, and Provolone.

Bread –We like a good crunch from the bread, I highly recommend toasting the bread for a bit BEFORE you add the tuna Salad Mixture, tomato, and cheese. For the bread, a good thick grain bread is best, such as french bread, hoagie rolls, or sourdough. Any homemade bread would be amazing as well, such as my homemadeAmish White Bread.

Butter –If you are looking to lighten this recipe up a bit, you could skip the butter. Personally, I like the flavor it brings to the sandwich, but you could toast the bread dry, or with a light spray of extra virgin olive oil as well.

Mayonnaise –There is some debate out there about mayonnaise versus miracle whip. We go Mayo all the way. Miracle Whip has a distinctlysweeter taste which doesn’t mix well with the celery salt seasoning in this recipe.

HOW TO MAKE A TUNA MELT WITH TOMATO RELISH

The hardest part about making this recipe is waiting to devour it. The steps are really simple and basically just a combination of chopping, layering, and baking.

1. Chop and slice your ingredients.
   1. pickles (finely diced) – this ingredient is used in both the tuna salad mixture and the tomato relish.
   2. red onion (finely diced)
   3. cilantro (finely diced)
   4. shallots (finely diced)
   5. garlic (minced)
   6. tomato (sliced and finely diced – it gets used twice!)
   7. bread (sliced at an angle)
2. Prepare the Tomato Relish – Mix together your diced tomato, pickles, red onion, and cilantro. Chill this while you are preparing the rest of the dish.
3. Butter and toast the bread. You will want to spend about 5-7 minutes on each side or until the bread starts to get golden brown. It will go back in the oven once the rest of the ingredients will be added, so you don’t want it to get too dark just yet.
4. Prepare the Tuna Salad. This includes tuna, mayo, celery salt, the remaining pickles, shallots, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. There are a lot of salty items in this recipe, so be careful to not add too much. You can always add more if you need it. Give it a good taste test and then add more if you want.
5. Place one scoop of the tuna mixture on the toasted bread, top with a slice of mozzarella and pop it back in the oven (on broil now) for about 5 minutes or until the cheese starts to bubble.
6. Top with the tomato relish.
7. Serve!