Having left the United States, the homeland of sandwiches par excellence, we move to Europe, specifically Portugal, where we find a really interesting sandwich: the francesinha.
Difficult to bite into due to its abundance, it is necessarily consumed with a fork and knife…
Originating from Porto, it is similar to the French croque-monsieur, from which it derives. The invention is attributed to Daniel da Silva, a Portuguese emigrant who returned from France and Belgium, who in 1960 tried to adapt the croque-monsieur to Portuguese taste. It is said that he named it so because of his huge admiration for French liberal women, the most “spicy” of his time.
It is a very popular dish in Porto, although it can sometimes be found elsewhere in Portugal.
It is made with two slices of sandwich bread filled with: fresh sausage, fiambre (a typical Portuguese cooked ham), linguiça, and a beef steak, all covered with melted cheese, often baked in a terracotta dish with plenty of sauce based on tomato, beer, and chili.
For the sauce, which can already be purchased ready-made in many Portuguese supermarkets, there is no standard recipe, but many variations.
Optionally, the sandwich can be served topped with a fried egg (special francesinha) – as in my case- and on a bed of french fries and generally accompanied by a “fino” (small glass of draft beer).
In 2011, it was named one of the 10 best sandwiches in the world by the American site “AOL Travel”.
The Francesinha was the highlight of the ViaggiandoMangiando On air event on May 2, 2022.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stovetop, Grill
- Cuisine: Portuguese
- Seasonality: All seasons
For the sandwich:
- 8 slices sandwich bread
- 4 slices cooked ham
- 8.8 oz Gruyère cheese (sliced)
- 2/3 cup milk
- 4 slices veal
- 3.5 oz sausage
- 4 linguiça (or bratwurst)
- to taste salt
- to taste butter
- 5.3 oz tomato pulp
- 2/3 cup Port wine
- 3.4 oz beer
- 1 cup ml beef broth
- 1 tablespoon flour (optional)
- to taste salt
- to taste chili pepper
Preparation
For the sandwich:
Cut the sausages and linguiça (or bratwurst) in half, without slicing through completely, and pound the veal slices with a meat mallet. Cook the veal slices and sausages in a pan with a little oil.
Toast the slices of sandwich bread in the oven or in a pan.
Place the fresh cheese in pieces in a small saucepan with the milk and butter and melt it.
For the tomato sauce:
In a saucepan, melt some butter, add the beer, then the tomato pulp, the broth, the chili pepper, the port wine, in this specific order.
During cooking, stir the sauce to make it creamy and homogeneous. If necessary, add a tablespoon of flour mixed in a little water to thicken the sauce. Let it boil and then cook for a few more minutes. It should remain liquid but not overly so.
Once all the ingredients are ready, assemble the sandwich:
lay the veal slice first, the sausage, the ham, and the linguiça, cover with the other slice of bread, cover with the cheese cream and then with the tomato and beer sauce.
Place the sandwich in a terracotta dish and put it under the grill in the oven for 5 minutes before serving.
Serve your francesinha right away, on a bed of french fries and if you want the special version, add a fried egg on top as I did.
Other versions of francesinha:
The “francesinha poveira”, named after the city of Povoa do Varzim, consists of a francesinha made with French baguette instead of sandwich bread, excellent as street food.
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For a successful sauce, a good Port.
