A Francesinha Recipe: Bring A Taste Of Porto To Your Home

Want to make a Francesinha, an iconic sandwich of Porto which is sometimes referred to as a "heart attack on a plate," at home? I now have a recipe for you.

During my recent trip to Portugal, we were ferried about by drivers from UNIQ, a car and driver service based in Portugal. Most of the time, I was in a van driven by Rui Peixoto (pictured above), and I sat in the front passenger seat. Thus, I frequently chatted with Rui about a variety of matters. He was a consummate professional, personable, and very knowledgeable of history. Rui helped to make the trip a success and I would unquestionably recommend him and UNIQ to anyone traveling in Portugal.

Rui, who makes the Francesinha at home quite often, was generous enough to share with me a recipe for the Francesinha. He learned this recipe from Daniel David da Silva, the man who is likely to have invented the Francesinha, so you can't get any more authentic that that. Rui states Daniel gave the name of "Francesinha" to the sandwich in honor of French women because he considered them rather "spicy."

Ingredients for Francesinha (1 portion):
2 slices of toast
3 slices of ham
7 slices of flamenco cheese (aka Edam cheese)
1 sausage
2 slices of “paio” (This is traditional embutido sausage, and may not be easily available, so you might need to substitute another type of sausage, like chorizo or linguica.)
1 steak 150g to 200g

Ingredients for Sauce (For 4 people):
1 Knorr seafood soup
1 Knorr oxtail soup
3 medium onions
6 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
Salsa
Olive oil
Salt
Chilli
"Maizena" flour to thicken
2 tablespoons of tomato pulp
1 beer
1 glass of brandy, or whiskey or hot water
1 glass of Port wine
1 glass of Portuguese white wine

Sauce Secrets: The main secret of the Francesinha is in the making of the sauce. The quantitative proportionality of the various beverages (beer, Port wine, table wine, among others) affects the greater or lesser "acidity or sweetness" of it, as well as the final taste.

Assembly of the Sandwich, From the base to the top:
Slice of loaf of bread (1 unit)
Ham (1 unit) + Cheese (1 unit)
Cheese (1 unit)
Paio (1 unit)
Steak (1 unit)
Ham (1 unit) + Cheese (1 unit) + Paio (1 unit)
Open sausage (1 unit)
Slice of loaf of bread (1 unit)
Cheese (5 units)
     Once the final slices of cheese has been placed atop the bread, place the sandwich into the oven to melt the cheese.
     Note: Preferably, grill the sausage and steak.

Direction for the Sauce:
1. Place olive oil, chopped garlic, chopped onion, bay leaves, salt and parsley in a pan.
2. Bring to a boil, adding a little water and stirring occasionally.
3. When starting to brown, add beer, tomato pulp, chilli, port wine, and white wine.
4. Boil about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove the bay leaves.
6. Grate everything very well with a magic wand (aka handheld immersion blender).
7. Prepare the soups, seafood and oxtail, separately and individually. It takes about 15 minutes.
8. Add the soups to the main "sauce".
9. Grate everything again with the magic wand (2 minutes).
10. Let it boil for 10 minutes, stirring continuously and serve very hot.
11. If necessary, thicken the sauce with "Maizena" flour.

Side dish: Originally, the Francesinha was served simply, however, it can be served and/or accompanied by: Fried egg, French fries, or Crayfish.

Drink: The drink that best represents and accompanies this iconic Portuguese delicacy is beer.

Some Additional Notes From Rui: Use about 6 tablespoons of tomato pulp to give more color and taste to the sauce. I put a slice of bread in the assemblage of the Francesinha immediately after the steak (in the middle of the Sandwich). I do not use cornstarch because the sauce has a good consistency. However, you can freeze the leftover sauce and when you unfreeze it, you can add water (to make it last longer) and you can thicken it a bit with cornstarch. I always put a glass of whiskey or brandy and another of aguardiente. I also put a hotdog together with the sausage and the grill all the ingredients.

My own thoughts on this Recipe: The Francesinha has numerous variations so you can easily tweak this recipe to your own preferences. And most restaurants zealously guard the recipe for their Sauce, which might vary from what Rui has provided. I look forward to trying to prepare this dish at home in the near future. And I hope some of my readers will take up the challenge to make a Francesinha as well. Many thanks to Rui for sharing how recipe with us.