🥪 Francesinha

Name: Francesinha
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Portugal · Porto
Ingredients: 4 thick slices white bread; 2 thin beef steaks (about 100 g each); 2 fresh sausages, halved lengthwise; 4 slices ham; 8 slices melting cheese; 2 eggs; For the sauce: 330 ml beer, 400 g crushed tomatoes, 1 onion, chilli flakes, 1 bay leaf

Origin: Portugal · Porto

1395kcal

per serving · 450 g

310kcal

per 100 g

81 gProtein18 g / 100 g

76 gFat17 g / 100 g

86 gCarbs19 g / 100 g

Francesinha is Porto's famous oversized sandwich: layers of bread filled with steak, sausage and ham, covered completely in melted cheese, topped with a fried egg and drowned in a hot, spicy tomato and beer sauce. It is rich, saucy and eaten with a knife and fork. In Porto it is usually served in a deep plate so the sauce pools around it.

Diets

Not vegetarianbecause of: steak, sausage, ham

Not veganbecause of: steak, sausage, ham, cheese, egg

Contains porkbecause of: ham

Contains glutenbecause of: bread, beer sauce

Contains dairybecause of: cheese

Not keto19 g carbs per 100 g

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Gluten ⚠ Eggs ⚠ Milk

What it is made of

breadsteaksausagehamcheesebeer sauceegg

Recipe

2 servings50 min

Ingredients

4 thick slices white bread
2 thin beef steaks (about 100 g each)
2 fresh sausages, halved lengthwise
4 slices ham
8 slices melting cheese
2 eggs
For the sauce: 330 ml beer, 400 g crushed tomatoes, 1 onion, chilli flakes, 1 bay leaf

Method

Make the sauce: soften the chopped onion in a little oil, add the tomatoes, beer, bay leaf and chilli, and simmer for 25 minutes; blend until smooth.
Sear the steaks and the sausages in a hot pan until cooked through.
Build each sandwich: bread, ham, steak, sausage, more ham, then a second slice of bread.
Cover each sandwich completely with cheese slices and bake at 200 °C for 5–8 minutes until melted.
Fry the eggs, place one on each sandwich and pour the hot sauce around and over.

How to make it lighter

Francesinha is very rich; sharing one between two people with a large salad is a realistic way to fit it into a day.
Ask for less cheese on top, or use fewer slices at home — the cheese layer adds a large share of the calories.
Pour the sauce over the sandwich rather than letting it soak in a deep pool, and skip extra bread for mopping it up.

History

The francesinha ("little Frenchie") is usually credited to Daniel da Silva, a returning emigrant who is said to have adapted the French croque-monsieur at a Porto restaurant in the 1950s or 1960s. It has since become the signature dish of Porto, and recipes for the sauce are closely guarded by local cafés.

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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →