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A good 52% of all canned tuna in the United States ends up in sandwiches (via The Oregonian), which kind of speaks volumes about Americans’ love for a good tuna salad sandwich. Skip the mayo, throw in some fresh ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, red onions, cannellini beans, capers, and lemon juice, and you’ve got an Italian twist that’s seriously hard to forget. However, according to Italian-American chef, entrepreneur, and TV personality Giada De Laurentiis, there’s still one more unexpected ingredient that will completely take it to the next level: raisins.
“I love the sweetness of the raisins in the bread,” De Laurentiis, who hosted Food Network’s “Giada at Home” program, told Food Republic. During that exclusive conversation, she shared how to add an Italian twist to tuna salad, but the chef also has some tips about transforming that salad into a sandwich. She believes there’s something truly special about adding raisins to the salad. “Just the raisin and a high quality ciabatta or some kind of loaf, country loaf with raisins is delicious,” she noted. “And I love the sweet with the savory. I think that really works wonderfully.”
Yet, to achieve that sweet and savory balance in an Italian-style tuna sandwich, she explained that it’s crucial to let the raisins sit in hot water for a while, usually overnight. “You need to soak them first in hot water to kind of bring them back to life so they’re not so chewy,” De Laurentiis pointed out. As a result, they will become softer, tastier, and easier to digest.
If you don’t have raisins, cranberries make a great substitute
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Despite being born in Rome and raised in Los Angeles, Giada De Laurentiis’ Southern Italian family strongly influenced her approach to food. “In Southern Italian cooking in Sicily, we use a lot of raisins for a caponata with vegetables,” De Laurentiis said. “I grew up eating that, so I do love it. But that’s the kind of tuna salad that we do.”
Raisins are, in essence, dried grapes, which means they’re naturally sweet. In fact, they’re made up of around 60% of sugar. This means that, when paired with certain savory and briny ingredients such as tuna or capers, they will beautifully balance the dish. They will also mellow the onions’ sharpness, as well as the lemon juice’s acidity. This is precisely why De Laurentiis is convinced they belong in a tuna salad sandwich.
Another secret behind an elevated tuna salad sandwich, according to the chef, is Italian olive oil. “The olive oil really is sort of the creamy, velvety texture that you would get from a mayonnaise.” As for the raisins, De Laurentiis said that cranberries can also work as a great substitute if you don’t have raisins on hand. They aren’t just the one-ingredient glow-up for the absolute best grilled cheese. “I love cranberries, I love the color of cranberries, too,” she shared. “The tuna and the cranberries I think works fine.”
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Dining and Cooking