Carrot and parsnip, similar but different 🆙

Carrot and parsnip, the differences

At first glance, parsnips may seem like a slightly faded carrot, in fact these two vegetables are close relatives. If you know them well, however, you will notice some differences between carrot and parsnip:

> Pastinaca sativa tends to be bigger and it can have even three times the weight of a common medium-sized carrot (there are however also smaller parsnips);

> the skinin addition to being clearer, it is also more subtle;

> on flavor is different, the parsnip has a aroma very fresh and it is a lot perfumed;

> la pastinaca it is more woody carrot, especially when it is large.

How to eat parsnips

Like carrot, parsnip can also be eaten raw, but only when it tends to be small. THE large tubers, precisely by virtue of their characteristic of woodiness, they are mostly used inside soups, minestrone, fillings, or they fit into the salads after cooking them.

Among the various recipes with parsnips are also excellent chips, which are a valid alternative to the more common potato chips.

The parsnip is a winter tuber that loves a harsh climate; it is harvested from the beginning ofautunno and throughout the cold season. The roots are fleshy, robust and creamy-white in color.

The later it is harvested, the sweeter its flavor; the parsnips that arrive on our tables in the middle of winter are therefore tendentially more sugary than those that can be found at the beginning of autumn.

Parsnip, where do I find it?

In England parsnips are widely used and it is easily found; it is also cultivated in the United States, in France and in other countries north of the country, where, therefore, it is quite easy to find it.

Here, however, it is almost completely unknown e it is not easy to find it. With a little luck, you can buy it in supermarkets with a particularly well-stocked fruit and vegetable section; the price, however, is much higher than that of a common carrot, because it is mostly imported products.

In the country it is grown mainly in Veneto, especially in the province of Vicenza. In the rest of our country it is really difficult to find parsnip crops.

In Salento there is a type of carrot whose name recalls that of the parsnip, it is called precisely pastenaca; in reality, however, it is about a different type of carrot, very tender and with a particularly sweet flavor, with a color that tends to purple, whose harvest and use are linked to the cult of Sant'Ippazio, the protector of Tiggiano, a small town in the province of Lecce.

The term pastenaca it is actually used all over the south of the country, but parsnip and parsnip are not the same thing; pastenaca in the South is more than anything else to say carrot.