The Tuna Salad Sandwich

I know, I know.  What's so exciting about tuna salad?  Well, usually, not a lot, but with this tuna salad, you'll be singing a new song!  Modified from the filling for Roasted Pepper Tuna Rolls from Lidia Bastianich, this has fast become a favorite to make, even if I'm not making the pepper rolls.

In the past I've made tuna melts with a tuna salad including water packed tuna, celery, shallots and lemon juice.  And I love the classic flavors in that, but THIS tuna salad needs no melty cheese to make you swoon.  What mustard you use in this salad is very important, so pick wisely and select something multidimensional.  I like to use Raye's Wintergarden Mustard, which has a touch of dill and garlic in a mellow, but flavorful medium brown mustard. While you are eating this tuna salad, it is soooo good, that you plan to make it again for lunch the next day, before you finish eating the sandwich in front of you.  If you make a double batch, this keeps excellently in the fridge for a week, easily.

For two large sandwiches~

With a fork, mix together in order, until a few small chunks of tuna remain, but the salad is mostly uniform

• 1- 5 ounce can of oil-packed tuna, well drained and flaked into pieces
• scant TBS capers, drained, rinsed, and finely chopped
• 1/2 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 2 TBS Mayonnaise
• generous 1/2 TBS mustard
• 2 TBS chopped parsley
• a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper

Serve up on a baguette or a ciabatta roll.  Along with all his other bread recipes, I'm especially crazy about Jim Lahey's stecca recipe for sandwich bread, which is the nicely browned half-stick of "baguette" in the picture, sprinkled with a little Maine Sea Salt.