Pork and Parsnip Lasagna
What would you say is the biggest culinary nightmare? Could it be Gordon Ramsay screaming down your throat and wondering where the lamb sauce is? Could it be waiting to see if your souffle baked up at all? No, I’ve got a task that is truly terrifying, something that has split families and ruined many a dinners…getting your kids to eat their vegetables.
It’s a simple fact of life that, for the most part, kids do not like vegetables. Part of the reason for this could be that kids associate vegetables with bitterness, and while us adults can certainly appreciate the flavor notes that bitterness can provide, kids are gonna need a bit more convincing.
Now, if there is one thing that kids do love, it’s sugar and sweets, fortunately mother nature has blessed us with some vegetables that have a decent amount of sweetness but plenty of health nutrients to go with them.
Carrots are a good option, they are nice and sweet…but kids are already eating these, so it wouldn’t be much of a victory there. Beets also contain a good amount of sweetness, but that bright red color can often be a warning sign that there is, indeed, vegetation. We now look at a cousin to the carrot, the parsnip, which, while having a lovely sweet and nutty flavor, is also white which can lend it to be easily disguised in dishes.
Today, I will be utilizing the parsnip as part of a unique lasagna that might, just might, have even your pickiest eater begging for seconds…as long as they don’t see this recipe.
Serves 8 (Plus some extra meat sauce)
Time: 3 hours
Difficulty: Easy
For the Meat Sauce:
Olive oil
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground Italian sausage
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 large sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp chili flakes (optional)
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 (15 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
2 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper
For the Parsnip Bechamel Sauce:
4 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
Salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp flour
2 1/4 cups milk, plus more if needed
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
For assembly:
1 box of no-boil lasagna sheets
Parmigiano Reggiano
For the meat sauce, heat up a thin layer of oil in a Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium high. Add the ground pork and sausage meat then cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until the meat is browned and no longer pink in the middle. Add the onion, carrot and celery then cook for a few minutes, or until the veggies start to soften.
Add the thyme, cinnamon stick, garlic, oregano and chili flakes (if using), then cook for another minute. Make a well in the middle of the mixture, then add the tomato paste in the middle of the well. Cook, stirring the paste constantly, until it reaches a brick red color, then deglaze with the white wine.
Reduce the wine by half, scraping up the bottom of the pot as you go, then add the crushed tomatoes and sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and let it all cook for about an hour, or until it’s very thick.
When the sauce gets closer to being done, heat the oven to 375 degrees F/190 C and bring a medium saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the parsnips, then cook for about 5 minutes, or until the parsnips are very soft. Drain, then dump into a food processor along with 1/4 cup of milk. Blend into a thick puree, adding more milk if needed to make it smooth.
Add the butter to the same saucepan used to boil the parsnips over medium low heat. Once melted, add the flour and cook for about a minute, then slowly add the milk and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce starts to thicken. Add the parsnip puree along with the Parmigiano and a grating of nutmeg, then stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is thick and smooth.
To assemble, spread a thin layer of the white sauce onto the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Add a layer of lasagna noodles in an even layer, then spread on some of the meat sauce, followed by some white sauce and a grating of Parmigiano. Repeat until you’ve used up all of your pasta, topping the last layer with any remaining white sauce and a grating of cheese.
Cover the pan with foil, bake for 20 minutes, remove the foil, then bake for another 5 minutes. For a brown, crispy top, switch on the broiler and let that go for a few minutes. Let the lasagna cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.
