Tomato and Olive Pasta

I decided to make this last night and then realized I was missing some of the ingredients so I improvised.

• Salt and pepper
• About a pound of short pasta
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves thinly sliced*
• 1/4 lb cherry tomatoes halved or quartered
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives – pitted and sliced**
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley***
• 1/4 Parmesan cheese

1. Cook the pasta until tender (I put 1/2TBS of garlic powder in the water)
2. While the pasta is cooking heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat (if using garlic cloves put them in the oil and cook for about a minute until golden stirring occasionally)
3. Add the cherry tomatoes, oregano, red pepper flakes 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper
4. Reduce the heat to low and cook for about 3 minutes until the tomato juices run
5. Add the pasta, olives, parsley and Parmesan (if using garlic powder add the other 1/2 TBS too) to the skillet, mix and serve hot.

*I had to use about 1TBS of garlic powder as we had no cloves so I put half in the water with the pasta and half in at step 5
**we had no kalamata olives so I just used the normal green ones
***We don’t have fresh parsley and I couldn’t find the dried parsley so I didn’t use any.
My parents and brother loved this dish as did I. It was quite tasty even though it was improvised and 4 of us finished what should have fed 6.