Penne Pasta w/ Garden Tomatoes

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, better than homegrown tomatoes. My favorite snack for the summer is garden tomatoes w/ sea salt. This year has certainly been the best year for everything I have in the garden. My tomato plants are about 6 feet tall and I am harvesting tomatoes EVERYDAY. I have many different kinds of tomatoes in the garden and to be honest, I have no idea what they are. Some were given to me to try and some were volunteers from our compost from last year.

These fresh tomatoes are the reward of all the hard work in the garden. Hours of weeding and pampering yield me the best tomatoes I could ask for. There are many Thai recipes that will make use of those scrumptious tomatoes. The famous papaya salad is one, Thai omelet is another. Although in the recipe for Thai omelet on my blog doesn't have tomatoes in it, feel free to add some and add a little more (just a little) fish sauce to compensate it. I always make my all time favorite, Bean Thread Noodle Salad w/ fresh garden tomatoes every year. This pasta dish is a little nostalgic. I grew up eating this dish as my mom always make them for us. This is a super kid friendly Thai dish that you can make all the time. Those penne pastas or elbow macaronis are perfect for kids to pick them up with their little fingers. I love eating them as a kid and I still love them now. Thanks to the abundance of gluten free pasta, I am able to enjoy this dish without the break out from my wheat allergy.

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp minced garlic

3 oz chicken breast, cut into bite size

1/2 cup chopped yellow onion

4-5 cups cooked pasta

3-4 tbsp ketchup (yep, you read it right, it's ketchup. Or you can make you own)

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1-2 tsp fish sauce to taste

a pinch of sugar

1/2 cup chopped green onions

heat up the wok or a saute pan. Add the oil and wait for a minute, then add garlic. Fry garlic until fragrant and golden, add chicken and stir fry until chicken is cooked. Add yellow onions and stir fry for about a minute, add pasta, chopped tomatoes, ketchup, fish sauce and sugar and stir fry to mix well for 2 minutes until tomatoes are cooked. Taste and adjust seasoning, add chopped green onions, fold the onions in and turn the heat off.