Parsnip Spaghetti Carbonara

After the great success of my leek carbonara, I thought I would try it with parsnips. I love how you can swap out things seasonally but keep the same recipe. After tweaking a few things, it turned out great. In fact, pretty delicious in all honesty. Roasted garlic gives it a lovely intense flavour, just remember to brush your teeth after! Pasta really is a delight isn't it, I mean especially drenched in cheese.

The crumb topping has had a little edit, as I have taken out the meat. Alas, you can put this back in if you wish. I didn't roast the parsnips, I simply popped them in boiling water for ten minutes. But if you wanted more of a sweet, nutty taste, then that would be delicious too.

Parsnip Spaghetti Carbonara

Serves: 2Prep time: 12 minsCook time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 Parsnips, chopped into matchsticks
• 25g Parmesan cheese
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 piece of bread, blitzed in to breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp salt, pinch of black pepper
• 8 garlic cloves
• Drizzle of olive oil
• 1tsp chilli flakes
• 200g wholewheat spaghetti pasta

Directions

1. Set the oven to 200c, pop 6 garlic cloves with the skin still on but tops chopped off on a baking tray and drizzle with a little oil. If choosing to roast your parsnips, split them into 4 parts length ways and then halve those sections. Cook for 20 minutes. Setting a timer for 15 minutes, so you can pop your crumb in for the last 5 of them.
2. Whilst your garlic is in the oven, set a pan of water on to boil. Once boiling, add pasta. Then five minutes later, add chopped parsnips. With the pasta cooking for 15 minutes and the parsnips for 10.
3. For crumb, add bread, salt, chilli flakes, a drizzle of oil and two garlic cloves to a food processor. Blitz to a crumb and pop in the oven flat on a baking tray for 5 minutes.
4. Once garlic is cooked, squeeze out and mash with a fork. Drain pasta, quickly add garlic, egg yolks and grated Parmesan cheese. Mix to combine and fully coat umtil you have a gorgeous carbonara sauce.
5. Serve with a decent amount of crumb and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Season to taste.