Verdura: Vegetables Italian Style

`` Verdura means vegetables,'' writes cooking teacher and food columnist La Place ( Cucina Fresca ). It ``represents a style of cooking directly related to nature.'' By scouring the homes and restaurants of Italy, here she proves her case with 250 recipes and 50 menus featuring ``vegetables in all their remarkable variety''--antipasti, salads, sandwiches, soups, pastas, risotti, tarts and stews. As in her previous books, ingredients fall into unexpected combinations--carrots with porcini mushrooms, fried yellow peppers with mint. Whimsy is also revealed in recipes for ``olive oil from hell'' and ``angry rice.'' Mainly, however, common sense and creativity combine forces. The roster of Italian vegetables is well represented, from olives to peppers to artichokes, and now-familiar foods like pasta are given new life (e.g., tubetti with diced tomato and avocado sauce). La Place tells us that ``it is through vegetables that I have found my greatest expression.'' Verdura is the proof. Illustrations not seen by PW. Author tour. (May)