Potato Salad

Moroccan olives are among the best in the Mediterranean and find their way into many salads. Look for good ones for this salad, which is best made in advance so that the dressing and flavors are absorbed. The potatoes will attract the dressing and flavors better if they are peeled.

An exercise in elegant simplicity, this salad makes a delicious contribution to a buffet of room-temperature dishes for company.

Going on a picnic? Don’t leave home without this salad, which pares potato salad down to its marvelous essence. This is also excellent with grilled or broiled soyfoods or seitan, as in the menu accompanying Baked Barbecue Tofu and Peppers (page 141).

A few choice ingredients contribute to this elegant potato salad. If you like goat cheese, you’ll love this one.

Sweet potatoes are pale yellow, yams are deeper orange, and red garnets have a reddish hue. If you have trouble finding all three, just buy three pounds’ worth of what you can find. This colorful salad is perfect with roast pork, or on the Thanksgiving menu as a refreshing change from the traditional sweet potato dishes.

This is a break from potato salads dressed with mayonnaise, and much tastier!

Potatoes will never taste the same after you have tried this dish. This preparation captures the beauty of the cooking of Basilicata: straightforward, simple, but full of brilliant flavor. Even if you are not so passionate about hot pepper, I encourage you not to be timid with the peperoncino in this dish. Of course, this kind of simple cooking depends on fine ingredients. Excellent olive oil and good potatoes are key. I like russets, but Yukon Gold or waxy varieties would work, too.

This tangy, textured potato salad is much appreciated in Liguria, and it has become a favorite of mine. I like it best served warm—when the freshly cooked potatoes have just been tossed in the hot bacon-and-mustard dressing—though it is also delicious at room temperature, on a buffet or picnic table. As the name implies (and the slightly Nordic ingredients also suggest), this salad came to Liguria from somewhere else. Though I don’t know the precise origins, the Riviera Ligure has for centuries lured writers, composers, poets, and artists from other parts of Europe. Perhaps one of these creative types made this salad during a Ligurian sojourn. Certainly I have no objection that such a tasty dish, even if introduced by an outsider, took root in Liguria and became part of the regional cuisine.

This is a terrific salad for your repertoire, especially in winter, when vegetable choices are limited (though I like it any time of year). It is tasty and versatile, good as a side dish for grilled chicken, lamb chops, or pork chops, and substantial enough to be a meal in itself. It doesn’t wilt and is excellent for a buffet table or picnic. Best of all, you can make and dress it ahead of time—in fact, it gets better if you do.

Make this salad as tart or as creamy as you like with the addition of more vinegar or mayonnaise.

Punch up the classic backyard cookout side with sautéed leeks and mustard seeds.

Tai Missoni got this recipe from the Milan restaurant Osteria La Risacca when he asked the owner what he ate at lunch. Adding white wine to the boiled potatoes keeps them moist.

Lemon peel and lemon juice, rosemary, and an olive oil dressing give this a nice lightness. If you prefer a creamy potato salad, use 2/3 cup mayonnaise in place of the olive oil.

Roasted potatoes are topped with an herb salad and chopped hard-boiled eggs in this take on the summer staple.

This recipe came from my great-great grandmother, who was born in Alsace Lorraine. The version here is a little different from the way it appears in my book, Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times; apparently my ancestors liked the dressing really sweet, but I found I needed less than a quarter cup of sugar. Play around with it to see what you like best. Also, they put the onions in at the end to let the potatoes steam them through, but I like cooking them with the bacon to bring out their more subtle flavor.

This riff on classic potato salad will surprise you with its zing. Lemon, both juice and zest, helps lighten the mayonnaise dressing, and plenty of celery adds crunch.

For more of a bite, add two to three teaspoons of whole grain mustard along with the olive oil.

This recipe makes enough salad for a picnic in the park, or to pack in your lunch all week.