COOKBOOK WATCH

The most interesting vegetarian book of the summer may be Nancy Zaslavksy’s “Meatless Mexican Home Cooking” (St. Martin’s Press, $25.95). Zaslavsky, a Southern Californian who frequently travels to Mexico (her last book was “A Cook’s Tour of Mexico”), relies on eggs and cheese for many of her meatless recipes. But there are a few wonderful vegetable dishes that will be new to most non-Mexicans--purslane with potatoes in tomatillo salsa, for instance, or cauliflower fritters in red salsa.