The Portuguese Francesinha sandwich comes from the northern part of Portugal, specifically the city of Porto. Don’t assume that francesinha is a simple and light sandwich you eat when you have a little void space in your tummy. This dish is HEAVY. I mean, eat it when you are starving and have plenty of room for this monstrosity.

Bread, sausages, meat, ham, cheese, egg, and a rich and meaty sauce. All this is accompanied by a bunch of french fries. That’s what I call a complete meal!

You can eat francesinhas in almost any local restaurant in Portugal. They are the star dish in any cold winter night in Lisbon.

The key ingredient is the sauce. Every Portuguese restaurant claims to have “O melhor molho de francesinhas” (the best francesinha’s sauce), but the truth is that … I have the best sauce recipe 🙂

The principal ingredients of this sauce are the beef broth, the beer, and the port wine. The port wine is what makes the sauce shine. This sweet wine is the pride of Portugal. It’s one of the finest wines that you can taste. It’s a dessert wine and it has a fruity and sweet taste. Just Delicious.

You can use any sliced bread, although you should try to pick bread with wide slices. The sausage has to be a Linguiça if you want a 100% Portuguese flavor. If you cannot find this kind of Portuguese sausage in your supermarket’s international section, you can use any kind of smokey and slightly spicy sausage.

I hope that you enjoy this hearty Portuguese comfort food.

Be aware that I didn’t include the egg in this recipe because I felt like it was too much for me. If you want the complete experience, you should simply fry an egg and put it on top of the francesinha. You should leave the yolk soft.

And as dessert a Portuguese custard tart (Pasteis de nata). 100% Portuguese culinary experience!