Vegetable cookery

Whether you pluck your vegetables from a backyard garden or buy them at a supermarket, a roadside stand, or even a dairy, you'd better know how to cook them once you're in the kitchen. ``Vegetables, the New Main Course Cookbook,'' by Joe Famularo and Louise Imperiale (Barron's, $15.95), can help a cook do just that.

The book includes lively recipes for all kinds of garden-fresh vegetables, whether in their pure unadulterated form or garnished with herb butters and parsley.

From tarts, puffs, and roulades to stovetop and baked vegetable dishes, no method or technique has been slighted. These two authors tell you how to shred, whip, roll up, sweeten, or pickle just about any vegetable under the sun.

Cardoon, celeriac, burdock, and fiddleheads may be new to many cooks, but the book provides easy, concise directions on how to prepare and cook them. Some vegetables take new partners, such as lentils with Swiss chard, eggplant with fennel, and broccoli with mussels.

The book includes a chapter on loaves, p^at'es, and terrines and one on stuffed vegetables and vegetable stuffings, as well as recipes for casseroles, quiches, soups, and even sandwiches.