CUCINA FRESCA

With recipes for:
Spicy Olive And Lemon Caponata
Cauliflower Salad With Three-Mustard Dressing
Sweet And Sour Eggplant Salad
Crostini With Wild Mushroom Topping
Zucchini Frittata

When it comes to the temperature of what they eat, Americans like their hot food hot and cold food cold. But Italians aren't so fussy.

No one beats the Italians for putting out an endless variety of tantalizing dishes that achieve their ultimate intensity of flavor at room temperature Italians even have a phrase for this kind of food, cucina fresca. Loosely translated, this means "fresh cuisine." But as authors Viana La Place and Evan Kleiman note in their book "Cucina Fresca" (Harper & Row), the term also means cool or room temperature.

Room-temperature foods taste better than foods that are hot or cold. Heat and cold numb our palates. And foods at both ends of the thermometer can be jarring. Ever bite into a slab of teeth-chattering pate? Or a slice of pizza that scorched the roof of your mouth?

An antipasto buffet of room-temperature dishes is a natural idea for everyday eating in warm weather. It's also a great concept for entertaining.

One of the most sumptuous antipasto buffets I’ve ever had was at Palermo restaurant in San Jose, CA. I've never made it past the phalanx of marinated zucchini and onions, thick wedges of spinach frittata, plump calamari salad and 40-odd other dishes to the pastas or entrees.

But getting customers to sample room-temperature food wasn't always easy for owner Renato Cusimano.

"We had a dish on the menu of linguine with a fresh, uncooked tomato sauce," he said. "We had to stop serving it because too many people told the waiter to take it back to the kitchen and heat it up."

In his native Sicily, Cusimano remembers, almost everything the family ate was not only eaten at room temperature but it was also stored that way, sometimes for a week or more.

"My mother would put the food out on the balcony or some other part of the house that was cool. But sometimes, when she went to pick it up, there was nothing left," he says.

Summer is perfect for room-temperature food because produce is so abundant. About 80 percent of Palermo's buffet is vegetarian.

One of Cusimano's favorite dishes is roasted yellow and red bell peppers that have been peeled, then laid out flat in pans. The peppers are covered in olive oil and a small amount of balsamic vinegar and allowed to marinate a few hours. They they're cut in strips and served with anchovy fillets, orange slices and black olives.

In another seasonal favorite, fava beans are boiled quickly, then tossed with sweet, cooked onions, olive oil and parsley. Sometimes they're combined with peas and artichoke hearts. Cusimano says no buffet could be complete without at least a few artichoke dishes.

Though some of the dishes are true salads, most are cooked dishes that are allowed to cool to room temperature. As they cool, flavors develop and intensify.

Sometimes, Cusimano took a dish that is normally hot, such as eggplant Parmesan, and made it room temperature. In this version, eggplant slices are sauteed in olive oil, then drained. The cooled eggplant is then layered with a delicious marinara sauce and lightly sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. It is infinitely superior to those gooey, hot casseroles.

Preparing room temperature food at home is a snap because you can put dishes together ahead of time, refrigerate them, and then take them out before serving. Allow refrigerated food at least an hour to warm up properly. Some foods, such as tomatoes, should never be refrigerated. Make those dishes up the day you need them. But for safety reasons, try not to leave them out for more than two hours. (See safety tips below.)

When you're putting together your own buffet, think balance. A total of five dishes should do it for most occasions. Let one of them be relatively substantial, such as a seafood salad or even thin slices of cold roast pork with mustard mayonnaise and pickles. Add a loaf of crusty bread and a fruity red or crisp white wine, and you're set.

SPICY OLIVE AND LEMON CAPONATA

Caponata is a must for any antipasto buffet. Unlike the classic version, this one doesn't use eggplant. It, and the two recipes that follow are from "Sweet Onions & Sour Cherries" by Jeannette Ferrary and Louise Fiszer (Simon & Schuster).

• 8 ounces pitted green olives
• 8 ounces pitted black olives
• 2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 quarter-inch-thick slices lemon
• 1 teaspoon chile powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• Salt

Slice olives and put in a medium saucepan with tomatoes, oil, garlic and tomato paste. Simmer for 8 minutes. Add the lemon, chile powder, cayenne and 3-4 tablespoons water. Simmer until the water is absorbed. Let cool and taste for salt. Makes 2 cups.

CAULIFLOWER SALAD WITH THREE-MUSTARD DRESSING

• Florets from 2 heads cauliflower, cooked just until tender
• 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage, cooked and sliced
• 1 bunch green onions (white and green parts), thinly sliced
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon hot sweet mustard
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper

Combine cauliflower, sausage and green onion in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients, stirring until smooth. Fold the dressing into the cauliflower mixture. Serves 12.

SWEET AND SOUR EGGPLANT SALAD

• 4 Asian eggplants
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• Healthy pinch of sugar
• 1/2 cup Greek black olives, pitted and chopped (optional)
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• Pinch cayenne

Pierce eggplants with a sharp knife n a few spots and bake in a 400-degree oven or grill until just soft, about 15-20 minutes. Cool and cut into strips. In a medium skillet, heat oil. Cook garlic, onion and bell pepper in oil 5 minutes. Add vinegar and continue cooking until the mixture is thick and syrupy. Add the eggplant and remaining ingredients. Cook 3 minutes. Taste for salt and sugar. (It should have a sweet and sour balance.) Makes 2 cups.

The following two recipes were adapted from "Primi Piatti" by Christopher Styler (Harper & Row).

CROSTINI WITH WILD MUSHROOM TOPPING

• 20 slices French or Italian bread, 1/2 inch thick
• Olive oil
• Wild mushroom topping (recipe follows)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly brush bread slices on both sides with olive oil. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake on lowest rack until underside is golden brown, about 12 minutes. Serve at room temperature wit wild mushroom topping. Makes 20 crostini.

WILD MUSHROOM TOPPING

• 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 pound wild mushrooms or button mushrooms or a mixture of both, sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced Italian parsley leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup chicken broth

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until sizzling. Stir in mushrooms, onions and garlic and cook 5 minutes or until mushrooms are softened. Add remaining ingredients and cook, stirring until most of the moisture is evaporated. Transfer to a cutting board. Chop to a spreadable consistency. Cool to room temperature.

ZUCCHINI FRITTATA

• 8 large eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
• Zucchini filling (recipe follows)
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Turn on broiler. Beat eggs, 2 tablespoons of water, salt, pepper and basil until thoroughly blended. Add zucchini filling and Parmesan.

Heat butter in a heavy 10-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-low heat until foaming. Pour in egg mixture and reduce heat to low. Cook eggs until all but the top 1/4-inch is set, about 15 minutes. Place skillet under broiler just until the top of the frittata is set, about 30 seconds to one minute. Cool to room temperature.

ZUCCHINI FILLING

• 12 ounces zucchini
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Trim ends of zucchini and grate. Heat butter in a skillet, and when foam stops, add zucchini, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until soft and barely browned. Cool slightly.

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FOOD SAFETY TIPS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline advises consumers not to keep perishables for more than two hours at temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees. Linda Burkholder, a hotline home economist, acknowledged that many people have survived foods that have set out considerably longer than two hours. But to play it safe, she had these suggestions:

+ Use several small platters and keep replenishing them, instead of a few large platters that sit out for long periods.

+ Don't add new food to old.

+ Well-wrapped foods at room temperature will be protected from some forms of contamination such as flies.

+ Dressings with acid such as vinaigrettes and mayonnaise help retard (but not prevent) spoilage. (Mayonnaise isn't the culprit many think it is. It's the combination of mayonnaise and protein-rich foods such as chicken that creates a haven for bacteria. So use mayonnaise in potato salads and vegetable salads instead.)Though the two-hour rule covers all cooked foods, meat, poultry and seafood are likely to spoil faster than vegetables.

+ If you're going on a picnic in hot weather, reduce the two-hour time to one hour.