Grandma’s goulash remains in the memories of my childhood. She offered it to the grandchildren every week, even in summer, and it was accompanied by polenta, which was often fried.
She must have learned this recipe in the Trieste period of her youth, because it is one of the few Julian dishes she made in a typically Roman-Friulian recipe book.

Grandma Irene’s Goulash

  • Preparation time: 3 hours
  • Ingredients for 4 servings
  • Difficulty: Easy recipe

  • Ingredients
  • 800 g of beef muscle
  • 6 white onions
  • 4 tbsp. sweet paprika
  • 2 tsp. spicy paprika
  • 1 glass of red wine
  • 2 tbsp. of tomato paste
  • 1 dice
  • Flour to taste
  • Thyme, marjoram, and bay leaves to taste
  • Extra virgin olive oil to taste
  • Salt to taste
  1. Instructions
  2. Tie the aromatic bunch with string.
  3. Cut the meat into not-too-small pieces. Dry well with a paper towel, and lightly flour them.
  4. In a cast iron saucepan with oil, simmer the sliced onions over a low heat for about ten minutes, adding water if necessary.
  5. Add the meat, raise the heat, and brown the meat, stirring often to prevent anything from sticking.
  6. Add the sweet and spicy paprika, the aromatic bunch, and then the red wine. Allow the alcohol in the wine to evaporate and add the concentrate, a little warm water up to half the height of the meat, and the stock cube.
  7. Place a lid and leave to cook over low heat for about two-and-a-half to three hours. Season with salt.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  • The onions absolutely must not darken during cooking so as not to be indigestible. For convenience, I remove them when I brown the meat and add them again once I add the wine.
  • These pieces of meat are very tasty but need slow, long cooking because they are rich in collagen that needs to melt.
  •  I always use a cast iron saucepan because it’s great for extended cooking.
  • The wine must be of excellent quality, because in the kitchen “what you put in is what you get back.”

Nonna with Lina and friends