Q. More Perfect Pasta Salad, the recipe I'm sharing with you (from www.Recipezaar.com), lives up to its name in flavor! It is truly the best pasta salad I've ever tasted. Unfortunately the nutritional information proves that the dish is far from perfect; in fact, it's scary! Thirty-three and a half grams of fat and more than 1,000 milligrams of sodium per serving. Can you make this truly a "perfect" pasta salad without compromising the taste?

A. I love pasta ,so I love pasta salads. I've lightened up my share over the years, but there is always room for one more.

We are cutting the original recipe in half to make enough for a family of four or six instead of for a potluck (if you want a big bowl of it, just double the recipe). We are using about the same amount of the vegetables originally called for (bell peppers, diced tomatoes, red onions, black olives) but using whole-wheat or whole-grain blend pasta instead of a tri-colored white flour pasta and 3 ounces of reduced-fat provolone or part-skim mozzarella cheese (cut into cubes) instead of 4 ounces of whole milk cheese. We are also switching to lower-fat turkey pepperoni by Hormel instead of sliced regular pepperoni sausage, and we are only adding 2 ounces instead of four.

For the dressing, we are making a lighter version by using less olive oil and just a little honey instead of granulated sugar. Some added seasonings and balsamic or red wine vinegar complete the dressing. The light version ends up having 38 percent fewer calories, two-thirds less fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, and double the fiber.

Original recipe contains 689 calories, 40 grams fast, 10 grams saturated fat, 28 milligrams cholesterol and 3.5 grams of fiber per serving (if 6 per recipe).

MORE PERFECT PASTA SALAD

For the dressing: