AI-generated image
Francesinha
Layered meat sandwich with beer sauce
Francesinha: Porto's layered steak, ham and sausage sandwich under melted cheese and hot beer-tomato sauce
PortugueseThe francesinha ('little French girl') belongs to Porto, where it was dreamed up in the 1950s by a cook inspired by the croque monsieur, and it is now the city's famous late-night and match-day meal. This sandwich contains pork: thick bread is layered with steak, ham and fresh sausage, covered in cheese slices, then drowned in a spicy tomato sauce made with beer and port-style fortified wine. For an alcohol-free sauce, use alcohol-free beer, or beef stock with a teaspoon of honey. Serve with chips and a fried egg on top if you dare. Chef's tip: simmer the sauce for at least 20 minutes and blend it smooth; it should be thick enough to cling, not run off.
- Total time
- 70 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 2
Ingredients
For the sauce
- ⅔ oz butter
- 1 onionchopped
- 2 cloves garlicchopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup passata
- 1 ½ cups lager beeror alcohol-free beer
- 2 tbsp port-style fortified wineor leave out
- ¾ cup beef stock
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tbsp cornflourmixed with 2 tbsp water
For the sandwiches
- 2 thin beef steaks (minute steak)about 100 g each
- 2 fresh pork sausageshalved lengthways
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 slices cooked ham
- 2 eggs (optional)
Shop this recipe on Amazon
What you'll need
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (7)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/6 doneStep 1: Melt ⅔ oz butter in a pan over a medium heat and soften 1 onion and 2 cloves garlic with 1 bay leaf for 6 minutes. Add 1 tsp sweet paprika and ½ tsp chilli flakes and stir for 30 seconds.
7 minStep 2: Pour in 1 cup passata, 1 ½ cups lager beer, 2 tbsp port-style fortified wine and ¾ cup beef stock. Simmer uncovered for 25 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, blend smooth, then stir in 1 tbsp cornflour and simmer 2 minutes until it coats a spoon. Season to taste and keep hot.
28 minStep 3: Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry 2 fresh pork sausages for 8–10 minutes, turning, until browned and 160°F (160 °F) inside with no pink. Fry 2 thin beef steaks (minute steak) for 1–2 minutes per side. Use a separate board for raw meat.
12 minStep 4: Heat the oven grill to high. Toast 4 thick slices of white sandwich bread lightly. On each of two slices layer 4 slices cooked ham, a steak and two sausage halves, then top with the remaining bread.
3 minStep 5: Put each sandwich in an ovenproof dish and cover the top and sides completely with 8 slices mild melting cheese slices (such as edam), tucking the slices down the sides. Grill for 3–4 minutes until the cheese melts and bubbles. If you like, top each with a fried egg from 2 eggs.
4 minStep 6: Ladle plenty of hot sauce around and over each sandwich and serve straight away, with chips. A common mistake is a thin, watery sauce that leaves the bread soggy; reduce it until it clings.
1 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 1150 kcal
- Protein
- 68 g
- Carbs
- 72 g
- Fat
- 62 g
- Fibre
- 4 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does francesinha take?
- About 70 minutes in total: 25 minutes to prepare and 45 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 2 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- What can I use instead of butter?
- The same weight of ghee or coconut oil (for frying and most baking).
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Sopa da pedraBean and pork soup
Almeirim, a market town in the Ribatejo, is the capital of this soup; its restaurants serve it every day, and each bowl arrives with a clean stone at the bottom, after the folk tale of a friar who 'made soup from a stone' by talking villagers into giving him everything else. This is a pork soup: red kidney beans simmer with chouriço, morcela blood sausage and a piece of pork belly, then potatoes, carrots and coriander finish it into a thick, hearty bowl. Chef's tip: cook the sausages whole and slice them at the end, so they stay juicy and don't turn the broth greasy.
ZapiekankaOpen baguette with mushrooms and cheese
Zapiekanka is Polish street food born in the 1970s and perfected at the hatch windows around Plac Nowy in Kraków's Kazimierz district, where students and night owls queue for one at midnight. Half a long baguette is topped with mushrooms fried with onion, covered in grated cheese and baked until crisp at the edges and bubbling, then finished with a zigzag of ketchup and chives. The classic version has no meat at all. Use a hard cheese made with vegetarian rennet (many supermarket mild Cheddars and Goudas are). Chef's tip: fry the mushrooms until completely dry before they go on the bread; wet mushrooms make the baguette soggy instead of crisp.
Polish
Lemongrass tofu banh mi
Bánh mì is Saigon's favourite street food: an airy, thin-crusted baguette split and stuffed with pickled carrot and daikon (đồ chua), cucumber, coriander and chilli. At vegetarian stalls near the city's pagodas the meat is swapped for sticky, caramelised lemongrass tofu, as in this version. Eat it for breakfast or lunch, warm, with a glass of iced coffee. Chef's tip: warm the baguette in a hot oven until the crust crackles when you squeeze it, and pull out a little of the soft crumb, so every bite is crisp shell, juicy filling and herbs in balance.
Vietnamese