Remember how wonderful home cooking tasted when you were a kid? Remember the comforting aromas that filled your house, the delicious soups and stews that warmed your childhood winters?

They can all be yours again. From the elegant to the ethnic to the traditional, this collection of recipes --developed for a whole new generation of pressure cookers and mindful of the healthier way we eat today — is comfort food at its fastest and best.

Today's totally safe pressure cookers — sleeker, speedier, more user-friendly than the microwave oven — turn out foods in one-third the time of conventional methods without sacrificing moisture, flavor, or aroma. Even inexpensive cuts of meat become tender and succulent; soups, stews, and sauces taste as if they've been simmering for hours; pot roast melts in the mouth; rice, beans, and grains, which used to take hours, are ready in minutes.

Lorna Sass introduces us to an eclectic array of dishes that can be prepared on a whim: Imagine a classic ossobuco in only 18 minutes, chicken gumbo in an astounding 9, superb risotto in just 6 minutes without stirring — even chocolate cheesecake and Grand Marnier bread pudding are done to perfection in record time.

These are dishes that are right in tune with the eat-healthy eat-right life-style of the 1990s: The shorter cooking times allow foods to retain their nutritional content, and the pressure cooker is ideal for preparing grains and beans, so low in cholesterol and high in fiber. Also included in the book are charts and tables that take the guesswork out of cooking foods under pressure.

Treat yourself to this wonderful world of satisfying flavors: Take the pressure out of cooking and put the taste and nutrition back in.

"For saving time and for serious cooking, I much prefer the pressure cooker to a microwave oven. I love these recipes for their variety and rich taste." (-- Pierre Franey)

"At last, the cookbook I've been waiting for, and how well it fills a major gap in my library--a cookbook with good stories, practical information, and delicious food." (-- Paula Wolfert)

Lorna Sass is an award-winning cook-book author whose groundbreaking Cooking Under Pressure is credited with reviving America's enthusiasm for the pressure cooker. She and her collection of PCs reside on Manhattan's Upper West Side.