Martha Stewart dropped a spring pasta recipe that’s worth your attention, and it’s built around something most home cooks already have sitting in their pantry collecting dust: lasagna noodles.

The dish is called Pea-Pesto Handkerchiefs. Stay with that name for a second, because it actually tells you everything about what makes this recipe work.

Stewart’s pesto starts where you’d expect: basil, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan, olive oil, garlic. That’s the familiar architecture. But she doesn’t stop there. Blanched peas go straight into the blender alongside everything else, and what comes out is a sauce that’s a shade of green so vivid it looks like someone color-corrected your dinner. The Parmesan and pine nuts keep the richness grounded, but the peas pull the flavor in a softer, slightly sweeter direction that cuts back on the raw-garlic edge you usually get with a standard pesto. It’s mellow without being dull. Good for picky eaters at the table. Good for adults who want something that doesn’t taste like the same Tuesday night rotation they’ve been running since January.

But Stewart’s real move here isn’t the sauce. It’s the pasta.

She doesn’t send you to a specialty shop hunting for some obscure Italian shape. She calls for regular lasagna noodles, broken by hand into smaller, rough pieces. Those jagged edges and natural folds are the “handkerchiefs.” Smart idea, actually, because the broken edges create pockets and ridges that hold the sauce instead of letting it drain straight to the bottom of the bowl. You get sauce in every bite. That’s not an accident. That’s the kind of kitchen logic that makes you wonder why you haven’t always done this.

If you’ve got a box of lasagna noodles you bought back in February when you were planning to make lasagna and never got around to it, that box has found its purpose.

Getting kids interested in something this green is a win most parents don’t see coming, and the color alone tends to do the selling. That’s a side effect of the blanching step: cook the peas just long enough to lock in the green and soften them up, and the result is a sauce that looks almost luminous on a white bowl. It didn’t take real skill to get there. That’s the point.

Peas have a long history in Italian pasta dishes, especially in spring, and pea pesto variations show up throughout Italian-American home cooking. But Stewart’s version is a clean, specific take that makes the technique feel accessible rather than fussy. Blanch the peas. Blend the sauce. Cook broken noodles until just tender. Toss. Done in under 30 minutes on a weeknight. Fresh peas peak from late April through June, so if you can get your hands on fresh ones rather than frozen, this recipe is worth timing around that window.

A full breakdown of the recipe, including exact quantities and technique, is available at Taste of Home.

The whole dish lands somewhere between casual and polished. It’s fast enough that it won’t wreck a weeknight, but the color and the sauce are put-together enough that you wouldn’t hesitate to serve it at a small Easter dinner or a backyard gathering before the summer heat makes anyone regret standing over a stove.

But Stewart’s version earns its place because it doesn’t ask much. American home cooks don’t always need a new ingredient or a hard technique. Sometimes you just need someone to show you a better use for what’s already in the cabinet.

“I was skeptical about peas in pesto,” said one home cook who tested the recipe this Spring, “but the texture and color honestly won me over before I even tasted it.”

The lasagna noodle trick alone is worth the price of admission. Free pasta shape upgrade. No specialty store required.