[1] Spicy beef dumplings with ginger scallion sauce (photos © City Dumpling).

[2] Vegetable dumplings, resplendent in their bright green wrappers.

[3] If you have extra fresh ginger, pop it into a glass of club soda (photo © Jan Schone | Stock Exchange).

Last night we ordered a dumpling sampler—30 Chinese dumplings!—from a new dumpling specialty take-out in town.

We had:

 
The dumplings were deliciously superior to typical Chinese restaurant dumplings.

But we were disappointed that the condiment sent with them was plastic packets of standard-issue soy sauce (and not even low sodium soy sauce).

This would not do, so we whipped up a ginger scallion sauce, using a recipe from Momofuku restaurant in New York City that we’d been meaning to try for a long time.

You can use it on anything, from Chinese and Japanese foods to:

 
Dip fries in it, for some variety.
 
 
INGREDIENTS: MOMOFUKU GINGER SCALLION SAUCE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the ingredients in a bowl. Taste and adding more if desired.

2. SERVE, although ideally let the flavors meld for 15 or 20 minutes enhances the flavor. Store in a tightly-closed jar for up to a week in the fridge.

If you find yourself with a leftover croissant, don’t stick it in the freezer.

Here’s a delicious way to use to use it, from Sun Basket.

Bread pudding is a flexible dish. You can serve it at brunch, or as a dessert for lunch or dinner.

For a snack, it hits the spot with a cup of coffee or tea.

And this recipe is a triple comfort food: chocolate, custard pudding and buttery croissants.

You can enhance the bread pudding with caramel or chocolate sauce, even use it as the base of a hot fudge sundae.

Or, make it seasonal with a garnish of spiced nuts or candied nuts, and/or dried or chopped fresh fruits (photo #4).

More ways to make bread pudding more festive:

 
Here’s the featured recipe, with links to more bread pudding recipes below.
 
 
RECIPE: CHOCOLATE-CROISSANT BREAD PUDDING

Ingredients For 2 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds onto a small plate or bowl. Set aside the bean and seeds.

2. COMBINE the cream, vanilla bean and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat. Season with a pinch of salt, whisking occasionally, until small bubbles appear around the edges and steam begins to rise. Immediately remove from the heat. But while the cream mixture warms…

3. PREPARE the egg yolks to make the custard. Set out a medium and a small bowl. Crack 1 egg at a time and separate the yolk and white. Place the yolks in the medium bowl and the whites in the small bowl. You won’t be using the whites in this recipe, so save the whites for another use (add to scrambled eggs or omelets, or these uses for egg whites).

4. ADD the sugar to the egg yolks and whisk until smooth. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the hot cream mixture into the yolk mixture in a thin stream, whisking until well combined. Pour the custard through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher or bowl. Discard the vanilla bean and set the custard aside.

5. TEAR or cut the croissant into 1-inch pieces. Coarsely chop the chocolate. Arrange the croissant pieces in an even layer in a small baking dish or large ramekin, then scatter the chocolate on top. Pour the custard over the croissant and chocolate. Place the small baking dish or large ramekin inside a medium baking dish and place both baking dishes in the oven.

6. POUR warm tap water into the medium baking dish, using a pitcher or kettle, filling it one-fourth full to create a water bath for the bread pudding. Cover both baking dishes with a sheet pan or aluminum foil. Bake until the custard is set, 20 to 25 minutes.

7. REMOVE from the oven, carefully remove the small baking dish from the water bath, and let cool to warm before transferring to individual plates or bowls and serving.
 

MORE BREAD PUDDING RECIPES

 
 
> THE HISTORY OF BREAD PUDDING
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CROISSANTS
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF PUDDING
 
 
________________

*Truth to tell, we added extra chocolate.

[1] Milk Chocolate Bread Pudding, made with a leftover croissant (photo © Sun Basket), a premium meal delivery service focusing on organic and clean ingredients.

[2] This Mushroom Bread Pudding with gruyere and radicchio shows that bread pudding can be savory, too. Here’s the recipe (photo © Good Eggs).

[3] How about a seasonal bread pudding: Pumpkin Bread Pudding With Bourbon Sauce? Here’s the recipe (photo © Go Bold With Butter).

[4] Bread pudding garnished with raisins and candied walnuts. You can pass the garnishes in a bowl, along with a bowl of mascarpone or whipped cream (photo © Mackenzie Ltd).

[1] Serve a Sunday spaghetti dinner with GIY (garnish-your-own) platters of meats and vegetables (photo © DeLallo).

[2] You can roast just a few vegetables or a whole feast of them (photo © Pampered Chef).

[3] Add shishito peppers to pasta? Consider them a substitute for crushed red pepper flakes. Here’s the recipe from Nutmeg Nanny (photo © Nutmeg Nanny).

Today’s tip is about Sunday pasta dinner, and the “Sunday sauce” made for it.

We also expand the idea of a spaghetti dinner, with a DIY addition of meats and vegetables.

If you come from an Italian-American family, you know what Sunday sauce is.

While there are as many ways to make sugo della Domenica (Sunday sauce) as there are families who eat it, this much is agreed:

It is grandma’s (or Mom’s) special tomato sauce, hearty and homemade for Sunday dinner pasta.

If you add meat, it’s called Sunday gravy—although this latter Americanism is inaccurate*. Stick to Sunday sauce.

Recipes for Sunday sauce have different types of meat; often the “big three”: beef (ground or meatballs), pork and Italian sausage. Each of the cuts enhances the richness of the sauce, as they simmer away.

Some cooks add a bit of red wine to the sauce. Others are sure to add fresh basil and rosemary, in addition to dried bay leaves and oregano.

Why dried oregano? It’s actually better-tasting.

 
 
MAKE THE SAUCE OR BUY IT

There are many recipes online for Sunday Sauce recipe. This one from DeLallo uses imported San Marzano tomatoes, pork ribs, vegetables and spices—just like grandma used to make.

Since good tomatoes aren’t available year-round (and have gotten very pricey), imported canned San Marzano tomatoes make the best sauce.

Since October is National Pasta Month, we’d like to expand on the idea of Sunday sauce on pasta.
 
 
DIY SUNDAY PASTA DINNER

For a festive pasta dinner, we like to serve a basic spaghetti-and-marinara with DIY platters of meat and vegetables.

We actually prefer linguine (flat) to spaghetti (round), because it’s easier to twirl.

Our modern approach to a spaghetti/linguine dinner is to serve the pasta, tossed with the sauce, on individual plates, with each diner choosing his/her preferred add-ons from meat and vegetable platters.

Prepare what you like from this list:

 
Buon appetito (enjoy your meal)!

________________

*Many Italian-Americans call the sauce “gravy” because it has meat in it; the rest of us seeking an alternative to Sunday sauce would simply call it “meat sauce.” While the Italian word for sauce is sugo, and Sunday sauce is sugo della Domenica, the equivalent term for gravy is sugo d’arrosto, which means “juice of a roast.”

†Hatch chiles are seasonal, harvested in the Southwest from August until the end of September, although sometimes a few weeks earlier and later, depending on the weather.