Cook It Light: Pasta, Rice, and Beans

Jones's ( Cook It Light Classics ) syndicated column, ``Cook It Light,'' is popular in part because the recipes unveiled there cut back on our common enemies: sodium, fat, calories, cholesterol. Her latest book provides fresh additions to that general roster, and healthful ``revisions'' of forbidden fruits requested by her readers. Her recipe for a ``lightened'' chicken fettuccine Alfredo, for example, calls for margarine, olive oil and low-fat milk, rather than the expected butter, cream and egg yolks; the per-serving calorie count is a mere 388. Elsewhere, the versatile bean is a frequent ingredient, whether with red snapper, salmon, or in numerous side dishes (bright beet risotto, spring vegetable stew, fava bean salad, black bean bisque with crab, and various chilis). The 200 recipes are new, not recycled, and should bring more of the faithful into the heat of Jones's kitchen. Desserts are not included; bread is. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)