When it comes to dreamy pasta and macaroni salads, we start with the K.I.S.S. rule: Keep It Simple Salad.

It means making it from scratch. Piling your old, cold noodles with random leftovers in the fridge and bottled dressing does not count.

"The key to a really great pasta salad is really great ingredients," said Mary Clark, chef at Denver's Fisher Clark Urban Delicatessen. "There is nowhere to hide soggy pasta or OK olive oil. Even the salt (should be) carefully chosen for flavor."

Clark's favorite pasta salad recipe has only nine perfect ingredients including pasta, salt and pepper.

The first pasta salad most of us encountered was iconic macaroni salad: elbows in mayo with a few token veggie bits. Cheap, filling, adaptable and comforting, Southern-born mac salad was the perfect 1960s picnic and barbecue accompaniment. Like potato salad, it was less an attraction in itself than a necessary condiment, like ketchup. Most mac salad consumed these days seems to come from plastic tubs.

During the 1980s, many of us switched allegiances. Our newly hip buds were drawn to the then-novel pasta salad, promulgated by California-Italian celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck. It seemed fresher, lighter, cooler and healthier.

Pasta's domination of macaroni in the salad department is clear. Search Google for macaroni salad and you get about 729,000 results. Try it for pasta salad and you get 3.6 million.

It's hard to find a casual-restaurant menu that doesn't have some permutation on the pasta salad theme. Too often it ends up as a blase plate of cold, olive oil-y spaghetti tumbled with rubbery mozzarella balls and grilled salmon.

With the hot summer nights upon us, it's time to reinvent your pasta salad:

* First, choose a pasta type you've never cooked with before. There are dozens of shapes available at supermarkets and specialty markets. Shapes such as fusilli or rotelle have nooks and crannies that grab up more sauce and flavor than long, flat noodles. Bigger, chewier pastas such as rigatoni or farfalle add textural interest, but they all are cooked basically the same.

* Make sure not to overcook pasta. Generally, add dry pasta to a large amount of salted, boiling - not simmering - water in an oversize pot. Putting a lid on the pot helps to guarantee that the water is really boiling at our altitude.

We don't care what your mom told you. Never add oil to boiling pasta. It coats the macaroni, making it harder to absorb sauce. Stir frequently and cook until pasta is al dente, or just tender-chewy.

* Always rinse pasta well in cold water before adding to the salad bowl, whether it's just been boiled or leftover from the refrigerator.

* The dressing needs to be cool and thick enough that it clings to the ingredients, but not goopy. If it's too thick, thin it out a little with buttermilk, plain yogurt, fresh lemon juice or vinegar, depending on the type of dressing.

Ed Janos, chef and co-owner of Cook's Fresh Market on the 16th Street Mall, said he likes pasta salads because they're especially versatile. He tops his pasta salad with grilled tuna, but he notes that it can just as easily be crowned with canned tuna or grilled chicken, beef, pork or shrimp.

* Add some vegetable variety by including farmers' market-fresh sweet peas and corn off the cob, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted peppers and grilled Asian eggplant slices. Some vegetables, such as asparagus and fennel, may be briefly blanched in hot water and cooled.

* Avoid beets unless you want your rigatoni to turn red. Also, dark liquids including soy sauce and balsamic vinegar tend to turn pasta brown.

* Make it a main dish by topping with grilled Italian sausage slices, skirt steak, teriyaki chicken thighs, prosciutto slices or grilled sea scallops, and good Colorado-made chevre, Camembert or feta.

* If the salad is going to sit in the refrigerator awhile before serving, be sure it's covered with plastic wrap so it won't pick up any off flavors. Toss before serving to make sure the pasta's coated in dressing. Also, taste to make sure it's seasoned properly.

* Some juicier ingredients such as sliced tomatoes and cucumber are best added to the salad just before serving.

* Be cautious and sparing with intense herbs such as fresh mint, tarragon and rosemary. Always add just before serving.

* Make your salad beautiful. Garnish it with a few leaves of basil or whole chives, toasted pine nuts or Marcona almonds, and zest from lemons or limes.

Types of pasta

* Elbow: short, curved tubes (aka macaroni)

* Farfalle (fahr-FA-lay): butterfly or bowtie-shaped

* Fusilli (fyoo-SEE-lee): corkscrew-shaped

* Orecchiette (oh-ray-kee-EHT-tay): tiny disk- or ear-shaped

* Orzo (OR-zo): tiny, rice-grain-shaped

* Penne (PEN-nay): straight tubes cut diagonally to a point (like a pen)

* Rigatoni (rig-ah-TOH-nee): large, straight, ridged tubes

* Rotelle (ro-TELL-ay): small, round, wheel-shaped

* Tortellini (tor-tl-EE-nee): small folded and filled pasta pocket shaped like a hat

* Ziti (ZEE-tee): long, thin, slightly curved tubes

Making it lighter

Whether you lean toward mac or pasta, here are some easy ways to make salads just a little more healthful.

* Replace 1/3 or more of the mayo or salad dressing with plain yogurt. Fat-free, Greek-style plain yogurt is ideal because it is thick.

* If you like hard-boiled egg in your salad, save some fat and cholesterol by using chopped egg whites only.

* Add color and nutrition by substituting whole wheat or spinach noodles for standard white noodles.

* Decrease calorie-intense ingredients such as eggs and cheese and increase veggies such as chopped celery, tomato, green bell pepper and green onion. More exotic additions include fennel and arugula.

* Decrease the salt and increase the herbs, spices and heat including parsley, dill, chives, cilantro and cayenne.

* If you like to add grated cheese to your salad, substitute reduced-fat or nonfat cheese.