SEASONAL PANTRY: IT'S PRIME TIME FOR POTATO SALAD

Although potato salad is welcome at the table year round, summer is its season, a time when it shows up at barbecues and picnics, when leftovers delight us, when we share recipes and argue lightheartedly over whose is best.

Like everyone else, I have my preferences, though it is easier to say what I don't like than what I do like, as my arms stretch pretty widely when it comes to potato salad. I do find most sweet salads, those made with Miracle Whip or sweet pickle relish, unpleasant and I do not care for potato salads with fresh dill, which I find too aggressive. Otherwise, I approach new versions with curiosity and delight and revisit old favorites with eager anticipation.

Very early on in my cooking life, when I was still a young teenager, I understood that to make the very best potato salads you must marinate the potatoes while they are still warm. Skip this step and the results will be disappointing. It's as important as, say, salting the cooking water when preparing pasta. If you forget, no amount of added salt will get the flavors to blossom. The same is true with potatoes. If you don't marinate them in even a simple vinaigrette or if you chill them before adding a marinade, you will never achieve the fullness of flavor you get when you do.

Ingredients matter, too, of course, and you already know what I recommend. Get your potatoes from a local farm, either at a farmers market or from the farm itself. Dry-farmed potatoes typically have the most concentrated flavors, and there are several great growers in Sonoma County. Shop around until you find your favorites.

When it comes to other ingredients, most of us rely on tradition, on combinations of flavors passed from one generation to another. There are several dozen varieties of olives available today, for example, but if we grew up with California black olives in potato salad, we likely will continue the tradition. This is fine, but you might try following the unfolding harvest now and then, too. You don't have to give up your favorite potato salad, but you might add a few new ones to your repertoire. Some may become new traditions that your children and grandchildren will treasure decades from now.

For many years, my default potato salad was one I found in the "Betty Crocker Cookbook" when I was 12 or 13. In that version, warm sliced potatoes are marinated in Italian dressing, the kind made with a packet of dry ingredients put in a commercial bottle with lines that indicate how much vinegar, water and olive should be added. Both the bottle and the book are long gone and I now use this classic French recipe as a building block for many other potato salads. It is extraordinary on its own, too.

Warm Potato Salad with Summer Variations

Makes 6 to 8 servings

3 pounds small new potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and cut into 3/8-inch thick slices

2 shallots, minced

-- Kosher salt

2 tablespoons best-quality white-wine vinegar, such as Banyuls

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 tablespoons white wine

-- Black pepper in a mill

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

3/4 cup, loosely packed, Italian parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh snipped chives

Put the sliced potatoes into the basket of a steamer set over boiling water and cook until tender but not mushy or falling apart, about 18 minutes.

While the potatoes steam, make the vinaigrette. Put the shallots into a medium bowl, season with salt, add the vinegar and let rest 10 to 12 minutes. Add the lemon juice, white wine and several turns of black pepper. Stir in the olive oil. Taste and correct for salt.

When the potatoes are tender, put them into a medium bowl, drizzle with half the vinaigrette and toss very gently. Let rest for at least 30 minutes so that the potatoes can absorb the dressing.

To finish the salad, toss the potatoes with the remaining dressing, half of the parsley and half of the chives. Toss, taste and correct for salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl or platter.

Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and herbs and either serve immediately or use as a base for a more complex salad.

Summer Variations

* With cherry tomatoes and cucumbers: Cut a pint of cherry tomatoes in half if small and in quarters if large, and cut a medium cucumber, preferably Armenian, into medium dice. Fold the tomatoes and cucumbers into the potatoes before adding the final vinaigrette.

* When green beans come into season, add some to the salad. To do so, cut about a pound of Blue Lakes, Romanos, Spanish Musica or other green beans into 1 1/2 -inch lengths (leave haricots verts whole), cook in boiling salted water until just tender, drain, cool slightly and fold into the potatoes after they have been marinated and before adding the final vinaigrette. This version is also quite good with halved or quartered cherry tomatoes and with thinly sliced radishes. Replace the parsley and chives with fresh basil.

* With tomatoes and bacon: Make just a half recipe of the vinaigrette and set it aside for finishing the salad. Fry 4 or 5 slices of bacon until it is crisp, set it on absorbent paper to drain and put 4 tablespoons of the bacon fat into a small bowl. Add a tablespoon of good white or red wine vinegar, season with salt and pepper and pour over the warm potatoes. Let the potatoes rest while you cut a pint of cherry tomatoes in half or in quarters and chop or crumble the bacon. Fold the tomatoes into the potatoes, add the vinaigrette, transfer to a serving bowl and top with the parsley, chives and crumbled bacon.

* With toppings instead of additions: Top the salad with 3 or 4 sliced hard-cooked eggs, 3 or 4 cooked sausages cut into diagonal slices, 5 or 6 poached, peeled and sliced lamb tongues or poached salt cod before adding vinaigrette.

* With red-wine vinegar: When making the vinaigrette, use a robust red-wine vinegar -- from DaVero, Vivo, B. R. Cohn, O or another local producer -- in place of the white-wine vinegar. Use red wine in place of the white wine. Taste carefully and adjust as needed for salt and acid balance. Reduce the parsley to 3 tablespoons and replace the chives with a mix of fresh oregano and thyme. This version is quite good topped with sausages.

Michele Anna Jordan hosts "Mouthful" Sundays at 7 p.m. on KRCB 90.9 & 91.1 FM. E-mail here at michele @micheleannajordan.com.