Italians don't like eating cold pasta... does that tell you anything? They've been doing it a few centuries longer than we have, maybe we have something to learn from them.

Instead, what's wrong with potato salad? Not the vinegary, pickle-y, undercooked deli kind, but a good homemade nicoise type salad, where the hot cooked potatoes marinate in white wine or chicken stock. Then toss with homemade mayo or just Hellman's. Season well of course -- celery salt works well.

Toss in some diced celery, sliced hardboiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, black olives, maybe even capers... mmmmmm.

But pasta came to Italy from the middle east, the earliest evidence of pasta we have is in China, and Asians eat cold pasta.

Asian noodles tend to be made with rice, Italian noodles with wheat flour. Different starch structures.

Also, I'm totally down with potato salad. Dilute the mayo with some sour cream (and go lightly with the stuff, no gooping necessary), use red potatoes, pitch in some fresh herbs (basil, tarragon, dill, thyme all are nice, though nicer when not used together), a little diced onion, boiled eggs, celery diced fine, maybe some braised or broiled beets for color and sweetness (I LOVE home-cooked beets), but let's not get too complicated. Bacon bits are also an awesome addition. Potato salad could be rescued as easily as pasta salad from grossness.

My mom always made an asian-style noodle salad with sesame oil and a little peanut butter thinned with soy and sweetened with a little sugar. It was pretty dang good. Could have benefitted from some cilantro and maybe some beansprouts and carrots soaked in that vietnamese fish sauce mixture, though. But it was the 80s, we didn't have those sorts of things.