Cheesy Bowtie Bake

At Delish, we firmly believe you don't have to be a trained chef to make insanely delicious food. It’s why we launched Insanely Easy Weeknight Dinners, a recurring series dedicated to simple meals the whole family can enjoy together. Well, pull up a dining chair because we’re partnering with Coca-Cola and asking real-life Delish readers to share their riffs on their families’ favorite weeknight dinners.

Courtney Wright and her two daughters, a fourth grader and high school senior, live together in coastal Virginia, where Courtney is a rare native in town. The born and raised Virginian, who works as a massage therapist, loves her waterfront lifestyle, walking by the gorgeous boats just a stone’s throw from her house, enjoying the seaside air, and finding joy at home with her family. 

“When I get in my kitchen and it’s time to cook, I kind of feel like a princess,” she says, referencing a favorite animated movie about a princess (and a frog prince, naturally) who wants to open a restaurant in New Orleans. The film is said to be inspired by a legendary chef known as the Queen of Creole cuisine. “I love food, eating, cooking, grocery shopping, recipes, cooking shows, it just makes me happy,” she says. Read about her cooking style and one of her favorite meals to make for her kids: A baked dish that elevates the humble noodle with bowties, zesty meat, and a layer of gooey, bubbling cheese for a truly satisfying summer-night smash.

What’s your typical weeknight cooking style? 

While I prefer to make things from scratch, I go for a semi-homemade meals type of vibe. I don't have time to make my own sauce or use a pasta maker—as a working mom with two hungry kids at home, I can also be the princess of tasty kitchen hacks. I still get inspired to work creatively with the ingredients I see at the grocery store, figuring out how I can make them a little bit healthier. It’s fun! My kids are my food critics, and since we watch a lot of cooking shows together, they have the vocab to tell me my food is “a little bit dense” or “under seasoned”—and yes, their newly sophisticated words are a blessing and a curse!

Where did your bowties recipe come from? 

My aunt and uncle have a huge house a couple cities away, and they host birthdays and cookouts over the summer. Back in 2005, my great aunt brought some cheesy bowtie pasta, a fun riff on baked mac and cheese, to one of their cookouts, and we all just loved that dish. We’ve all been hooked on it ever since! Spaghetti is fine, but bowties just make everything so much more fun. Each family now replicates it at home, with our own spins on the original. I add more rosemary and oregano and melt extra cheese, and I add sausage. My kids like it, my extended family likes it. Once, I brought leftovers to work and my coworker ate it—cold!

What’s special about cooking in your house?

At my place, bowties are a ritual, a comfort food. If we have something good happen—and I’m one of those moms who will celebrate anything, honor roll, St. Patrick’s Day, whatever—it’s like, hey, let’s make bowties. I always have about 2-3 boxes of bowties and a few cans of spaghetti sauce in my pantry. A nice cold soda always pairs well with a hot, out-of-the-oven dinner. It might sound a little cheesy, but a Coke with my cheesy bowties makes it feel a little more special. A Coke and a smile. That phrase will never go out of style.