Francesinha

Ingredients

• 8 slices thick sliced white sandwich bread or square-sliced country bread
• 400 g thin beef cutlets or sliced rump steak
• 2 pieces Portuguese linguiça or mild Portuguese chouriço
• 4 pieces fresh pork sausages, such as plain chipolatas
• 4 slices premium cooked ham
• 16 slices sliced French Emmental
• 30 g unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 piece yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 300 ml plain tomato purée
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 330 ml Portuguese pale lager or light pale ale
• 8 cl ruby port wine
• 250 ml liquid veal stock or rich beef broth
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 leaf bay leaf
• 1 tsp piri-piri, Tabasco, or Portuguese hot sauce
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 3 tbsp cold water
• to taste fine salt
• to taste ground black pepper
• 800 g homemade French fries or oven-baked potato fries
• 4 pieces fresh eggs, optional for serving Portuguese style
• 700 ml homemade Francesinha sauce

Method

1. Prepare the sauce: sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil until tender and lightly golden, then add the tomato paste and cook until it smells roasted.
2. Pour in the tomato purée, beer, port, veal stock, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, and chili; let simmer until the sauce smells like cooked tomato, the beer has mellowed, and the spices have melded.
3. Remove the bay leaf, blend the sauce, then thicken with the cornstarch dissolved in cold water if needed; it should coat a spoon while remaining fluid enough to pool around the sandwich.
4. Sear the salted and peppered beef cutlets in a very hot skillet with a little butter, just until browned but still juicy; keep warm.
5. Split the linguiças and sausages lengthwise, then grill them in the same skillet until browned, juicy, and slightly crispy on the edges.
6. Toast the bread with a little butter until golden and firm, so it resists the sauce without turning mushy too quickly.
7. Assemble each sandwich on an ovenproof dish: bread, ham, beef, sausages, linguiça, then bread; cover entirely with overlapping slices of Emmental.
8. Place under the broiler until the cheese melts, drapes over the sides, and begins to bubble without drying out.
9. Ladle generously with piping hot sauce just before serving, add a fried egg if desired, and serve with French fries, which must be able to soak up the sauce around the sandwich.

Nutrition

Per serving

Energy

1989.4 kcal

Protein

106.77 g

Carbohydrate

135.83 g

Fat

107.04 g

Fibre

14.66 g

Calcium

248.79 mg

Iron

1.69 mg

Magnesium

59.88 mg