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 ¡ª the wonderful and horribly underappreciated cooks at truck stops 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, who put it in her magazine ("Everyday With Rachael Ray"), which I read, got inspired by, tinkered with and came up with my own version of.
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. Where she went Italian with artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil and arugula, I stayed American with pickles, celery, mayonnaise and Cheddar cheese.
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 TUNA MELT

5 thick slices rustic bread
2 (6-ounce) cans tuna, drained (unless you buy tuna in olive oil)
1 small red onion, diced
1/3 cup diced roasted red pepper
1 celery rib, finely chopped
1/3 cup diced bread and butter pickles
1 cup loosely packed baby spinach leaves or baby salad greens, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
5 slices Cheddar cheese

Arrange bread on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in a preheated 450-degree oven until just barely browned, about 5 minutes. Set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine tuna, onion, roasted red pepper, celery, pickles and spinach. Mix well. In a small bowl, whisk together mustard and mayonnaise, then mix into tuna.

Spread some of tuna salad over each slice of bread, dividing evenly, then top with a slice of cheese. Bake 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Makes 5 servings.