Eat This: Vanilla Ice Cream

Vanilla ice cream is the little black dress of desserts. It's classic, versatile, and very under-rated.

This frozen treat might appear at a fancy dinner party, providing an elegant blank canvas for berry compote, sauteed pears and crumbled gingersnaps, or caramelized bananas. But vanilla ice cream also knows how to dress down--it is comfort food brimming with the childhood nostalgia of root beer floats, milkshakes, and sundaes with chocolate sauce.

But vanilla ice cream doesn't require embellishment. A single scoop in a large wine goblet with a little amaretto cookie on the side...tastes just as good as the scoop on a sugar cone.