Once upon a time I saw a bbq spaghetti on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I couldn’t shake the urge to try it, so when we had a lot of leftover pulled pork from the Super Bowl I knew I’d have to make some barbecue pasta sauce. Because I stored the leftover pork and sauce separately I used a bottled barbecue sauce instead of the Carolina BBQ for this recipe.

I just loved this mashup of cuisines. It takes your tastebuds a moment to get over the “culture shock” of a spicy, smokey, sweet sauce instead of the expected acidic tomato sauce.

I urge you, the next time you have leftover pulled pork, do something a little different and try this barbecue pasta instead!

BBQ Pulled Pork Pasta

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 C dry pasta
• 1 C tomato sauce
• 3/4 C barbecue sauce
• 1/2 C water
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/4 C chopped fresh basil (I used Gourmet Garden lightly dried herbs)
• 2 C cooked, pulled pork
• 2 scallions, sliced

Steps:

1. Cook pasta in boiling salted water, until al dente. Drain.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, water and tomato paste. Bring sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir in the herbs and pulled pork.
3. Put drained pasta into the pasta sauce. Garnish with the scallions.

*This recipe is adapted from Anna at http://hiddenponies.com/2013/05/bbq-pulled-pork-pasta/*