Parsnip and Sherry Soup with Hazelnut Pesto

Strangely, the pleasure of crisp, sweet roast parsnips is little known among the gastronomically inclined French, who consider the parsnip to be animal feed – their loss, of course. Parsnips were one of the few foodstuffs exported from Britain during Roman times. The emperor Tiberius evidently liked them but sadly only in the belief that they were some form of aphrodisiac. Presumably it was the shape and sturdiness rather than the flavour or nutritional qualities that appealed to him. No ma