Francesinha (Porto Sandwich with Beer Sauce)
- Prep
- 30 min
- Total
- 1 h 15 min
- Servings
- 2
The francesinha is a Porto institution and a challenge for any appetite: a tower of sandwich bread filled with several meats, covered in melted cheese and drowned in a hot, spicy sauce.
It was created in the 1950s by Daniel David Silva, an emigrant back from France, who took the French croque-monsieur and adapted it to the bolder taste of Porto. The sauce is the secret, and every restaurant and family has its own recipe.
Recipe
Francesinha
Porto's best-known sandwich: bread, steak, sausage, linguiça and ham under melted cheese, covered in a spicy tomato and beer sauce. Big and generous, a symbol of the city.
Ingredients
Method
- 1For the sauce, gently fry the onion, garlic, bacon and bay leaf in olive oil in a saucepan. When golden, add the tomato passata and the piri-piri.
- 2Pour in the beer, the port and the brandy. Simmer over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes to reduce.
- 3Remove the bay leaf and blend everything with a stick blender. For a thicker sauce, add the dissolved cornstarch and boil until it thickens. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
- 4For the meats, grill or fry the steaks, seasoned with salt. Split the fresh sausages and the linguiça lengthwise and grill them too.
- 5To assemble, put a slice of toast in an ovenproof dish. Top it with the ham, then the linguiça, the sausage and finally the steak. Close with another slice of toast.
- 6Cover the whole sandwich with the cheese slices, sides included.
- 7Bake in a hot oven, 200 °C (400 °F), for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.
- 8Take it out, put a fried egg on top of each francesinha and pour plenty of the boiling sauce over it. Serve right away with fries.
Tips
Let the sauce simmer and reduce slowly until the alcohol has cooked off completely, then blend it well so it’s smooth. If it’s too thin, thicken it with a little cornstarch.
Cover the sandwich completely with cheese before pouring over the hot sauce.
You can swap the steak for pork or chicken breast, though it moves away from tradition.
Storing
Make extra sauce: it keeps for 5 days in glass jars in the fridge, or can be frozen, and it tastes even better the next day. It’s best to assemble the sandwich with freshly grilled meats and reheat only the sauce. To reheat a leftover francesinha with sauce, use the oven at 180 °C (350 °F); the microwave makes the bread soggy.
