Turn A Comfort Meal Into A Comfort Snack With Bite-Size Tuna Melts

The tuna melt is among the nation's most evocative sandwiches. Whether it conjures tableaus of the classic American diner, hearty lunches on snow days spent at home, or late-night tipsy snacks in the dorms, the tuna melt speaks to many of us. And its script is similar to that of most comfort foods, communicating warmth, a kind of safe embrace, and memories of gentler times. It is also hearty, a real mealtime commitment, and one that, also like a lot of comfort foods, can land a little heavy. But the tuna melt is also super easy to lighten up into a snack.

While you can, technically, just make a regular tuna melt and section it into bite-size bits, this is not the best way to miniaturize the item. Even with your sharpest knife, it'll get a little mangled and the dainty squares you might have imagined will be greasy and hard to handle, plus the proportions will be off. Instead, make tiny tuna melts to begin with for a petite treat.

To shrink your standard tuna melt, look to the original for architectural inspiration. Tuna salad is weighty and the cheese won't exactly lighten things up, so you need a sturdy base. Toast a slice of sourdough, pumpernickel, or rye bread a little longer than you would at breakfast. You want it golden brown without any charring and, most importantly, rigid. Cut it into 3x5-inch squares and top them with a dollop (about a heaping tablespoon) of your favorite tuna salad mix. The best canned tuna, mayo, salt, and pepper are just the base. Dress it up with tuna salad condiment additions like Dijon. Layer the tuna salad with another square of quick-melting cheese like American, Gruyère, cheddar, or mozzarella. Know that pre-shredded cheese might not melt due to additives. But, if working with your own blend, press the cheese gently into the tuna salad to secure it for melting. Place the tuna-topped toast under the broiler and begin checking for doneness at around three minutes. Top with more toast or serve open-faced. 

Turning your tuna melts teeny-tiny also seems to make them extra festive, so they'd play marvelously at parties. Just picture them next to a tray of pigs-in-a-blanket and a Jell-O mold; the darling throwback theme practically plans itself. To scale for groups, use baguette medallions. They'll slice even faster and don't necessarily need to be toasted in advance, structurally sound as they are. Packaged bruschetta toasts will also perform nicely, but avoid any kind of cracker, which will make the small snack more like a dip rather than imparting the familiar flavors and textures you intended.