Vanilla Ice Cream with Mint and Lemon Sauce

Ice cream lends itself to all kinds of dessert combinations: It can be mixed or served with berries, berry sauce, chocolate or caramel sauce, nuts, and/or whipped cream, as well as combined with cookies. Or, for the ultimate dessert, sandwich ice cream between layers of sponge or pound cake, cover with meringue, and bake in the oven for a triumphant Baked Alaska.

Shorey adores lemon and mint, so I combined mint, lemon juice, and sugar syrup and added some banana slices to create a sauce that I served over vanilla ice cream. When I buy a pint of ice cream, I unmold it, cut it into fourths, place each piece on a sheet of plastic wrap, and press it into a ball, then wrap and return it to the freezer. The balls of ice cream stay free of freezer burn and are ready to be served, without the need for an ice cream scoop.

Serves 4

• 1 large lemon
• ½ cup loosely packed mint leaves
• ½ cup corn syrup
• 2 small bananas
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream
• 4 cookies (optional)

Using a Microplane, grate the rind of the lemon. You should have a good tablespoon of grated rind. Halve the lemon and squeeze it to extract ⅓ cup of juice. Place the lemon rind, lemon juice, mint leaves, and corn syrup in a blender and blend until smooth.

Peel and slice the bananas. (You should have about 1½ cups banana slices.) Place the slices in a bowl and mix in the sauce. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

At serving time, divide the ice cream among four deep plates and pour the sauce and bananas over it. Serve with or without cookies.