Francesinha

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

1. In a big saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the garlic and the onions. Cook them until golden.
2. Pour the beer and simmer until the alcohol evaporates. It’s around 5 minutes.
3. 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

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F)
2. Cook the beef chopped in small strings. Season with salt and black pepper.
3. Cook the linguiças sliced in half lengthwise.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Cover with the sauce and serve with french fries.