Hello! My name is Shannon Overmiller. I’m the executive chef at The Majestic in Old Town Alexandria.

Today I’m preparing for you friend green tomatoes, which is a Southern classic. One of the garnishes to the fried green tomatoes is tomato ragu, or a tomato sauce.

This tomato sauce is a very thick onion filled, garlic filled, and herb filled, tomato sauce. And I also like to take a little bit of 00:24 insides of the preserved lemon that I prepared earlier to give this a little touch of acid to the sauce. While this is such a good garnishment for the fried green tomatoes, this is a sweet and savory warm sauce, and it compliments the crispness, and the cool center of the fried green tomato, which is also a little bit sour almost. So in a way, the way it garnishes is with texture, smell, taste and sight. It changes all the senses for you, which is how I find that is a natural complement, is that all the senses, in a way, are balanced opposite of each other. So you have the creamy tomato ragu to go against the crisp tartness of the tomato.

To start out, you want to take 1 large white onion, very rustic. Slice it. Half moons, to the thickness that you desire. So to begin, I want to add about a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. About a teaspoon of unsalted butter. You want your skillet to be fairly warm, not smoking. This stage you want to add a little sliced or chopped garlic. About a half a teaspoon, depending on the amount of batch you’re making. I have a little slice here as well. Little color to that, cook out the raw. Once your raw is cooked out, not too much color, you want to add your onions. Season at this stage, it releases the juices in the onions naturally. And it allows for better more even cooking, plus you also want to season everything in layers. I also previously roasted off some 02:56 and pearl onions, which are simply put into an oven with a little olive oil and salt and roasted it at a high temperature or you can do it in a hot pan, just as we’re doing here, but a much higher temperature. You want color on them. And I previously roasted off some. It’s all the process is. Olive oil and sautéing, just the same as what we’re doing here. You can even add them in at this stage, raw with this onions and let them cook down. While your onions are sweating, you don’t want too much color but you do want them to become translucent, and soft and tender, naturally sweet. While this is happening, while this process is taking place, you can get to prepare your herbs for the ragu.

I like to use fresh oregano, reserving the stems for any stocks that you may be doing later. A bay leaf or 2. Some nice, fresh basil, which we have purple basil here. You simply prepare your basil, dice it up, doesn’t have to be perfect, just rustic. Slice your oregano. Depending on the amount of herb that you want. And again, season your onions. Then I like to take either roasted tomatoes, when in season you like to roast your tomatoes and peel them after they’ve been roasted and chop them up. Or in season as well, when you have beautiful tomatoes you can can them, and which I’ve done. And then I’ve taken my canned tomatoes, crushed them through my hand or through a ricer. Simply add this to your ragu mixture, once your onions have softened. You want this to be a chunky, hearty, almost like a stew but more chunky. Let this simmer for approximately 35-40 minutes. Delicious. Add your herbs in. And then at the end, add a little bit more fresh basil right at the end and olive oil. Check your seasoning, now that you’ve got your tomatoes, you have another layer which you have to pre-season again. Simmer on low heat. In the final product, what you have…if I can turn my oven on…this is your final product, everything has come together, and it turned into a nice, thick ragu.