Garlic and Olive Pasta

I do not like Italian food. There are three dishes that one would call "Italian" that I will eat. MY lasagna. Homemade or really good pizza (sans cheese), and this pasta dish. I honestly call it Sappy Pasta, because it is a recipe I got from my Aunt Sappy. (I couldn't say Kathy when I was little, even though my name is Katie, and I called her Sappy. 28 years later, even her children, husband, and her grandchildren now call her Sappy.)

Anyway, I like this dish because it has loads of olives. I love olives. I think I could sit down and eat an entire can of them and not think anything of it. It also has a lot of garlic. Something I really came to love after marrying my husband. You will notice that I use a lot of garlic in my cooking because in our home, the more garlic, the better.

A tip for this recipe, you will know you are doing it correctly if you have to turn on the fan above your stove because when you are sauteing the garlic and red pepper flakes it creates fumes that makes it hard to breath. So when you start coughing and gasping and turn on the fan, you know you are doing it right.

**This is also a meal I love on the trail. I make the meal up to the sauce being done and instead of adding the pasta, I add only the garbanzo beans. Then I spread the sauce over a fruit leather sheet or plastic wrap and dehydrate it until it is dry and crispy. To cook it on the trail, I pour it into my pot and cover it with water. Let it soak for 5 minutes, then fire up the stove and bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until soft. Pour over pasta cooked on the trail. AWESOME.**