Gulasch Triestino — Beef Goulash of Trieste

Ingredients

• 1 kg beef chuck or shin, cut into 5–6 cm cubes
• 1 kg white or yellow onions, finely sliced
• 3 tbsp lard, or olive oil
• 3 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1 tsp hot Hungarian paprika
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 200 ml red wine
• 200 ml beef broth
• 1 tsp caraway seeds, lightly crushed
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 2 bay leaves

Method

1. 1
   Melt the lard in a wide, heavy-based pot over a medium-low flame. Add the sliced onions with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring regularly, for 30–40 minutes, so that the onions lose their water slowly and colour evenly without catching — patience here is what gives the sauce its body and sweetness later. The onions are ready when they are deeply golden, almost caramelised, and have collapsed entirely — no raw or pale patches remain.
2. 2
   Remove the pot from the heat and allow the onions to cool for one minute so that no oil is actively sizzling, because paprika scorches almost instantly in fierce heat and turns from sweet and fragrant to acrid and bitter with no warning. Add the sweet and hot paprika directly to the onions and stir vigorously for 30 seconds to bloom the spice in the residual fat — the mixture will become a dense, brick-red paste with a sharp, sweet fragrance. This is where the dish lives or dies: the paprika must never meet a live flame at this stage.
3. 3
   Return the pot to a medium flame, add the beef cubes, and stir to coat them thoroughly in the paprika-onion base so that each piece is sealed in its own brick-red crust as it colours. Cook for 5–8 minutes, turning the beef until every surface has taken on colour and the base has begun to catch very slightly — the meat should no longer look raw. Do not rush this stage; colour on the beef now means depth in the finished sauce.
4. 4
   Add the tomato purée and stir to combine, then pour in the red wine and let it reduce by half so the sharpness cooks off and what remains is round and dark. Add the beef broth, caraway seeds, marjoram, and bay leaves, and stir once, scraping up any deposits from the base of the pot — those caught bits carry concentrated flavour and must not be left behind. The liquid should barely cover the beef; add a little more broth if necessary.
5. 5
   Cover the pot and braise over a very low flame for 2 to 3 hours, checking and stirring every 30 minutes to make sure nothing is catching on the bottom, and so you can judge how the sauce is tightening as the onions dissolve into it. The gulasch is ready when the beef yields completely to a spoon with no resistance, the onion has disappeared into a deep crimson sauce of coating consistency — not watery. If the sauce is still thin at 2 hours 30 minutes, remove the lid and reduce uncovered for a further 15–20 minutes.
6. 6
   Remove the bay leaves. Taste and adjust salt. Rest the gulasch off the heat for at least 10 minutes before serving — better still, cool, refrigerate overnight, and reheat gently, because the sauce deepens considerably after 24 hours as the fat carries the paprika and caraway through every part of the dish. Serve with soft polenta, potato gnocchi, or bread.