April 24, 1985

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1985 The Economy The Consumer Price Index rose last month by the largest amount in more than a year. The 0.5 percent rise was led by a surge in gasoline prices. (Page A1.) Consumer prices in New York and northeastern New Jersey rose 0.2 percent. (D22.)

WHEN most people think of preparing pasta with spring vegetables the ubiquitous primavera sauce comes to mind. At its best, pasta primavera is a wonderful showcase for this season's largesse, including the asparagus, string beans, peas, artichokes and peppers that are spilling out of produce bins. Yet there seem to be as many versions of the dish as there are restaurants and home cooks serving it, resulting in a culinary cliche of towering proportions. Worse, its preparation is often mediocre. In the past year I have foraged through some flaccid and swampy primaveras that made me nostalgic for midwinter stews. One unforgettable rendition combined watery zucchini with cherry tomatoes and stringy celery in tomato sauce; another featured woody (they called it ''al dente'') cauliflower and broccoli in a bog of bland cream sauce. Fortunately, some engaging primavera sauces, or twists on them, which exemplify the dish's versatili

Under this heading, The Times amplifies articles or rectifies what the editors consider significant lapses of fairness, balance or perspective. A Washington dispatch on March 20 reported the appointment of Arnaud de Borchgrave as editor in chief of The Washington Times, the three- year-old morning newspaper associated with the Unification Church.

''THE silence, the water, the beauty of the countryside, the sunset and the seagulls, even the fishermen - they all know me now - it's heaven on earth,'' said Monika Dorman, a 45- year-old former figure skater who recently took up rowing on Long Island Sound near her home in Sands Point. Like many others in the metropolitan area and across the country, Mrs. Dorman has discovered the pleasures of a sport, once limited primarily to colleges, that now appears to be growing steadily. The United States Rowing Association in Philadelphia reports that its national membership has doubled, from 6,000 to 12,000, in the last six years. Locally, the Power Ten Club in Manhattan has grown from 27 members at its inception in 1981 to 280 this year, and two groups in the city are trying to open boathouses, which they hope will be open to the public. The reasons for rowing's rising popularity are varied. The fitness boom is one; the lure of the water another, and last year's Olympics in Los Angeles a third. ''The Olympics gave us a tremendous amount of exposure,'' said Allan Borghard, who runs the Sagamore Rowing Club in Huntington, L.I. ''Rowing finally came out of the Dark Ages.''

The General Motors Corporation today reported first-quarter earnings of $1.07 billion, or $3.26 a share, down 33.6 percent from a record income last year of $1.61 billion, or $5.11 a share. Auto industry analysts said that slowing car sales, spending on new product programs and other costs associated with the company's reorganization were responsible for the decline. Harvey E. Heinbach, who follows the industry for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., said: ''I think there are two different problems here. First, the company is losing market share by not doing the volume of business they should be doing.''