This oven-baked spring pea pasta is the kind of weeknight recipe I lean on when I want something cozy, creamy, and hands-off. The method is wonderfully simple: you scatter frozen green peas over raw dry shell pasta in a ceramic baking dish, add just three more pantry-friendly ingredients, and let the oven do the work. It’s a practical, modern twist on baked pasta casseroles that Midwestern home cooks have been making for generations—no pot of boiling water, no separate sauce pan.
Everything bakes together into a creamy, lightly sauced dish where the peas stay sweet and bright, the shells turn tender, and the top gets just a bit golden. It’s the one-pan dinner people inevitably ask for the recipe for, because it feels special but is almost embarrassingly easy.
Serve this creamy spring pea pasta straight from the
