Francesinha is a traditional dish from the city of Porto. The francesinha in its special sandwich variation consists of linguiça, ham, cold meat and beef steak, covered with melted cheese.
Ingredients
Based Ingredients
- bread
 - linguiça (type of Portuguese sausage)
 - ham
 - Portuguese cheese
 - beef meat
 
Sauce Ingredients
- blonde beer
 - fried tomato sauce
 - port wine
 - beef broth
 - salted butter
 - onion
 - minced garlic
 - cornstarch
 - olive oil
 - piripiri (Portuguese chili)
 
Directions
Directions for the sauce
- In a big saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the garlic and the onions. Cook them until golden.
 - Pour the beer and simmer until the alcohol evaporates. It’s around 5 minutes.
 - Pour the beef broth, the fried tomato sauce, the port wine, the Piripiri and the butter to give shine to the sauce. Add the cornstarch slowly avoiding lumps. Simmer for a couple of minutes until the sauce looks thick.
 
Directions for the Francesinhas
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F)
 - Cook the beef chopped in small strings. Season with salt and black pepper.
 - Cook the linguiças sliced in half lengthwise.
 - Take 4 slices of bread for each Francesinha. Cut the center of two slices to make room for the filling. The other two will be the bottom and top of the francesinhas.
 - Fill the bread with the sausages, the beef and the ham roughly chopped. Cover the francesinhas with the cheese and melt in the oven for 5 minutes.
 - Cover with the sauce and serve with french fries.