← Recipes

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.

Served with oven potato wedges.

10Steps
19Ingredients
Print recipe card

Ingredients for 2

Based Ingredients

  • bread
  • linguiça (type of Portuguese sausage)
  • ham
  • Portuguese cheese
  • beef meat
  • salt and black pepper, to taste

Sauce Ingredients

  • blonde beer
  • fried tomato sauce
  • port wine
  • beef broth
  • salted butter
  • onion
  • minced garlic
  • cornstarch
  • olive oil
  • crushed red pepper flakes

Side: Oven potato wedges

  • 1 lb russet potatoes
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ tsp paprika

Instructions

  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 red pepper flakes 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.

  4. About 40 minutes before serving, start the wedges: heat the oven to 425°F. Cut the potatoes into wedges, toss with the olive oil, paprika and salt, and roast for 30 minutes, turning once, until crisp. If the oven is already in use at a lower temperature, roast on another rack and allow 10–15 minutes longer.

  5. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F)

  6. Cook the beef chopped in small strings. Season with salt and black pepper.

  7. Cook the linguiças sliced in half lengthwise.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. Cover with the sauce and serve with french fries.