Well I guess I could give you the recipe..

Really? You want to make something I call "ghetto pasta salad"? You asked for it. But first, some background.

I've been poor most of my adult life, except for that 4 or 5 year stint where I had no bills, paid next to nothing in rent, and had insane disposable income while saving to move to Mexico. Of course, I lived in the house of cards, which was fine if you ignored the carpenter ant issues. But then I moved away, spent all my money, came back, made some more, moved back, spent even more money, racked up my credit and am back to being poor. The circle of life. Anyway, back when I was just newly on my own, living in Southern California on next to no money, I used to have to dream up concoctions for dinner that would utilize what might happen to be in the cupboard at the time and still tasted somewhat decent. Some of these concoctions will never be replicated; others, like my ghetto pasta salad or my ghetto fried rice, are still a part of my diet. I don't expect anyone to bring this pasta salad to their next potluck, nor do I expect you to even want to try it, but I think it's pretty tasty. Of course, I have kind of weird taste.

So here goes.

Ghetto Pasta Salad

You'll need -

Pasta - any size, shape or amount except the long skinny stuff. These days I use whole wheat pasta.
Lawry's Season Salt
Oregano
Olive oil
Water
Sliced black olives
Mild white cheese, cut into cubes - I used to use Farmer's cheese before it got popular (and ridiculously expensive) - now I use white Mexican "Casero" cheese because it's cheap at the Winco

To prepare -

Boil your noodles (I shouldn't have to tell you that)

Make your dressing - 5 tablespoons olive oil and 6 tablespoons water. I don't know why but that's what works. Add the season salt and oregano - heavy on the oregano. If you're not sure, you can always make up for it, so go sparingly on the salt until you're used to making it. There's no fixing too much season salt. Stir and set aside.

Drain your cooked pasta, and run cold water over them until they get cool. You don't want any heat left in them at all. Drain well.

Add the noodles to the dressing, add the sliced olives and the cheese, and mix well. Here's where you can taste to see if you need a dash more season salt, or more oregano. I like the taste of the oregano so I generally will add more in this step. It's just not ghetto pasta salad if you don't leave the table with oregano in your teeth.

Chill and serve.

I'm not a mayonnaise person so I like this, and I'm not really sure what 22-year-old me was doing living in her dumpy Huntington Beach apartment with olive oil and Lawry's Season Salt in the cupboard, but I guess it's a good thing I had it. I usually make enough to last me a few days, because I'm not a big fan of cooking for one mid-week and it gets better the longer it sits in the fridge. I suppose you could add to it, but then it wouldn't be my recipe, would it?

Provecho!