Pasta Caponati

Ingredients

• 1 lb pasta (I prefer small pasta for this dish, such as farfalle, ditalini, small rigatoni, etc.)
• 1 cup eggplant, chopped into very small pieces
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons green olives and black olives, chopped (good olives!)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 12 green pepper, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers, please used salted capers,not the brine variety,this makes a big difference in flavor (I use more)
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 34 ounces crushed tomatoes
• hot pepper flakes (optional)