Stanley Tucci And Ina Garten Use The Same Classy Trick To Elevate Tuna Melts

Tuna melts are the uber-versatile sandwich you can dress almost any way you wish and enjoy in tons of circumstances. It's an Americana classic packed with nostalgia when cloaked in cheddar cheese at the diner, for example, and it's reminiscent of comforting childhood snow days at home when smothered in melty American. However, these iconic options barely scratch the rind of all of the vast and varied cheeses you can slice, grate, or crumble on your tuna melt. Wouldn't you know it, beloved food world star Ina Garten and cinematic-culinary crossover hero Stanley Tucci share the same elegant tuna melt cheese preference that might just enhance your next effort: Emmentaler.

Tucci uses the holy, nutty, Swiss-adjacent slices in an Instagram clip, where he whips up a little lunch. Garten, too, breaks out the good stuff for her "ultimate tuna melt, which is basically a tuna sandwich, but with the volume turned way up," she says in her own "Barefoot Contessa" segment (via YouTube). Garten's Emmentaler is also grated rather than sliced, which is just one way her and Tucci's tuna melt recipes deviate in spite of the dairy that binds them.

Ina Garten is a longtime food and drink pro with real deal retail experience, cooking shows, and more than a dozen cookbooks to her name. Although Stanley Tucci's career has certainly taken a delightful turn into the foodstuff landscape too, most folks probably recognize him better as an actor. 

Naturally, Tucci's tuna melt is a bit lower-fi than Garten's, and thus easier to recreate at home. Tucci takes canned white tuna and combines it with the salt, pepper, mayo, celery, and onion you've probably already used plenty of times yourself. He fits it and the Emmentaler between a couple slices of buttered bread and melts it all together in a sandwich press before slicing it in half and serving. It's both delicious and achievable.

Garten's method is achievable too, with a little bit of aspiration thrown in. She starts with high-quality imported tuna (her's was from Spain) in a glass jar packed in olive oil. Then comes diced hearts of celery, scallions, dill, fresh lemon juice, and, of course, salt and pepper. She also flavors her mayonnaise with anchovy paste for that inimitable pop before she tops it all on sliced bread and covers it, open-faced, with the grated Emmentaler for maximum melt under the broiler. Once it's all beautifully bubbly, she crowns it with microgreens. In your own kitchen, you can of course tinker with what works for you — provided you stick with the Emmentaler like this disparate duo.