Cheesy Parsnip Pasta
A creamy smoked cheese pasta with honey roasted parsnips and crispy sage! This is a flavorful, decadent and delicious winter pasta that can be made on a budget.
Ingredients
- 500 g (1 lb) parsnips , peeled and cubed
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp butter, divided
- 4 small shallots, thinly sliced
- 175 g (6 oz) smoked cheddar, grated
- 300 g (10.5 oz) spaghetti
- 120 ml (0.5 cup) cream, either single or heavy cream will work
- 1 bunch sage leaves
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F.
- Prep your parsnips. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey and olive oil (it doesn't need to be perfectly emulsified but just mixed together as best you can) and add the parnsips, stirring to coat them.500 g parsnips, 4 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp honey
- Scatter on a baking tray and place in the oven for 25 minutes. After 10 minutes, take them out of the oven and and flip them all around to help them cook evenly.
- Once you have 15 minutes left on the clock for the parsnips, start your spaghetti cooking according to package instructions.300 g spaghetti
- Cook the shallots. In a large deep pan, melt one tablespoon of the butter over a very low heat, add the shallots and saute for 10 minutes until they are soft and starting to brown.4 small shallots, 2 tbsp butter
- Add the cream and stir through, over a very low heat, until warmed through, and then remove from the heat, or turn off the gas, immediately.120 ml cream
- Add the cheese and stir through until melted. It will be very thick - take about 1/4 cup (60ml) of the pasta cooking water from the pan and mix through to thin the sauce out. You may need more or less depending on the thickness of the cream you're using. The sauce can sit, covered, if the pasta isn't ready quite yet.175 g smoked cheddar
- Remove the parsnips from the oven when they're ready and set aside to cool off for a few moments while you finish everything else.
- Crisp the sage leaves. In a small frying pan or saucepan, heat the remaining tablespoon butter and sage leaves until the sage just begins to crisp up (a minute or two), then immediately remove from the heat and set aside. The residual heat of the pan will keep cooking them so remove them just as soon as they're starting to crisp as we don't want them to end up overdone.1 bunch sage leaves, 2 tbsp butter
- Drain the spaghetti (reserving some more pasta cooking water) and add it to the sauce. Toss to combine, and add some of the reserved cooking water if you want to thin the sauce out any more.
- Assemble! Add the roasted parsnips to the top of the pasta, followed by the sage leaves and a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve immediately.Juice of 1/2 lemon
