The trouble with tuna melts is they can be so messy to make.

I've never had much luck achieving that happy equilibrium whereby my bread is well-toasted, my cheese is melted AND my tuna salad hasn't oozed into the skillet. Sure, using a dry tuna salad (or very little tuna at all) fixes this, but why bother?

Tuna melts should contain heaps of tuna salad. And it should be moist tuna salad, made all goopy with mayo or dressing and chopped pickles, maybe even some tomatoes and celery. But it seems the better the tuna salad, the harder it is to make a good melt.

For this reason, I generally leave my tuna melts to the experts — the wonderful and horribly underappreciated cooks at family restaurants and diners. Not sure what their trick is, but they always manage to deliver.

Recently, inspiration struck. Or to be more precise, inspiration struck Rachael Ray for an oven-baked rather than fried sandwich; she put it in her magazine ("Everyday With Rachael Ray"), which I read and got inspired by, leading me to tinker with the recipe and come up with my own version.

Ray's recipe was for a bruschetta (an Italian appetizer in which a large slice of bread is topped with something savory, such as tomatoes and cheese) crowned with tuna and melted cheese.

I liked her idea, but I wanted it to be a little more traditional. Assembly was easy. Lightly toast the bread, mix the tuna salad, top the bread with the salad and cheese, then finish with a few minutes in the oven. No mess, no fuss. Just as good as a real tuna melt, and impressive enough to serve guests.

OPEN FACE TUNA MELT