Learn to COOK - Pasta Salad: 50 Favorite Recipes

This type of cookbook is always one of the easiest to add to one's collection, in that if you like the single subject of the book, you are virtually assured of making good use of the book, unlike a volume by the latest celebrity chef or latest exploration of the cuisine of a former Soviet republic.

There are three key aspects of the book which add to its attraction. First, almost all recipes are not only fairly simple, they virtually all follow the same pattern, just like gratins, braises, and chowders. Second, although there are a lot of similarities in method, the range of tastes is broad. While French and Italian flavors are the most common, there is a strong contingent of Asian, Greek, and Latin flavors and textures from the use of Oriental noodles like udon, soba, and rice noodles. Third, since the noodles, `supporting cast' of meats and vegetables, and the dressings are so interchangeable, improvisation can take you well beyond the nominal fifty recipes in the book.

The book begins with five master recipes for vinaigrette, mayonnaise, roasting peppers, blanching vegetables, and toasting nuts and seeds. If you have few cookbooks, these are important to have near at hand. I may have added a recipe for aioli, at least as a variation on mayonnaise.

There are four chapters on salad recipes. The first, largest, and most interesting is on the vegetable pasta salad. The very first recipe for a salad including squash shows the variety of this dish. Other favorite and unusual ingredients are mango, jicama, pears, and peaches. As you could tell from the master recipe on roasting peppers, this is one of the author's favorite ingredients. It appears in several different vegetable recipes. The second and shortest chapter adds meat, primarily chicken. I would not be surprised to see a little borrowing from an earlier book in this chapter. The third chapter of recipes covers seafood with all the usual suspects, lobster, shrimp, anchovies, crab, tuna, and salmon. The last chapter of recipes is a catchall of recipes `from family and friends'. It is altogether fitting that this chapter ends with a recipe for the great American `retro macaroni salad' with mayonnaise, onions, bell pepper, and celery.

The book has the contemporary `de rigeur' feature of cookbooks is a headnote which tells a story of how each recipe was developed, it's life outside this book, and how it was chosen for the book. Except for attributions of recipes to family and friends, there is no credit given to any other sources. With a pinch of skepticism, I will believe that the author developed most of the recipes. I was almost expecting to see my favorite `World's Best' pasta salad recipe done by Jamie Oliver, but these are all just as good.

There are a few blemishes that are as much a weakness of the publisher's copy editor as of the author. One is the flip side of my pet peeve where it is said that salt must melt into the liquid of vinaigrette before adding the oil. For all the times the word `dissolve' is misused, here is a case where it is missing and it should have been used. Another blemish is an inconsistency in the amount of water specified for cooking pasta in the text and in a table. None of these are serious. I just hope that pointing them out will encourage book publishers to be more vigilant in future volumes.

Subjects the author may wish to consider in a second edition of this book are discussions of whole wheat noodles, the impact on a carb sensitive diet from these recipes, and a bit more discussion of mayonnaise and safe storage. I do give the author very high marks for notes on the `shelf life' of the recipes. That is, which should be served cold, which should be served warm, which can be refrigerated and for how long, and which should be served immediately. You don't always get this stuff in your Wednesday newspaper culinary supplement.

Highly recommended if you make pasta salads. Slightly pricy for fifty recipes, but the chances that you will use a large number of the recipes is very, very good. Easy for all skills and ages!