Francesinha

Before You Start

Wrap the whole sandwich in cheese, sides included. It is the waterproofing.

Sauce hot and poured at the table, over and around.

Blend the sauce smooth — a lumpy francesinha sauce is nobody's friend.

Cooking Francesinha

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1. For the sauce, melt the butter and cook the onion 8 minutes until soft. Add the garlic for 1 minute.

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2. Stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes, then add the beer and let it bubble 3 minutes.

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3. Add the stock, passata, tomato purée, bay, piri-piri, Worcestershire and sugar. Simmer 25 minutes until it thickens slightly.

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4. Blend smooth, return to the pan, stir in the cream and season. Keep it hot.

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5. Fry the sausages until cooked through, and sear the steaks 90 seconds a side. Rest and slice the steak.

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6. Toast the bread lightly on both sides.

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7. Build each sandwich: bread, ham, sausage, steak, mortadella, then the second slice of bread.

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8. Sit each on an ovenproof plate and drape the cheese over the top and down all four sides so the sandwich is completely wrapped.

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9. Grill under a hot grill for 3 to 4 minutes until the cheese melts and blisters.

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10. Ladle the hot sauce over and around, top with a fried egg, and serve with chips piled at the side.

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Why It Works

The sauce is what every Porto café argues about, and the version that works at home is built like a light gravy — beer, stock, tomato and a spoonful of piri-piri, thickened just enough to pour rather than sit. The cheese goes on before the sauce so it seals the sandwich, otherwise the bread collapses on the way to the table.

After You've Cooked It

Sauce keeps 4 days refrigerated and freezes 2 months. Build the sandwiches to order.

Ingredient Swaps

• In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Serving Francesinha

• A cold Super Bock
• Chips
• A green salad, for form's sake

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Broa de Milho.

Nutrition per Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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