The Perfect Way To Repurpose Leftover BBQ Pulled Pork For A Next-Day Meal

Pulled pork is pretty amazing, not just because of the way it tastes, but because you can cook it in so many different ways. If you're a pitmaster, you can smoke it low and slow, but it's also okay to bake it in the oven or cook it in a crockpot. As long as you shred the final product and mix it with barbecue sauce (or vinegar and pepper, as in my beloved East Carolina style), it's pulled pork, and it's bound to be delicious. If you've made it with a pork shoulder or another hefty cut of meat, you'll likely have leftovers, which can easily be reheated via the boil-in-a-bag method to keep them moist. These leftovers can then be eaten on a bun or baked potato, as a pizza topping if you want to give pepperoni a break, or as part of a grilled cheese sandwich. Yet another way to repurpose them, though, is to mix them with pasta.

Pulled pork and pasta? Sure, why not? After all, you've got your meat and your sauce, and pasta makes the perfect base for both of these. It's even better than bread, in some respects, since noodles won't get soggy if you over-sauce them. Add some sliced scallions, sauteed onions, or other vegetables if you want a complete one-pot meal, and feel free to sprinkle your porky pasta with shredded cheese for an extra layer of flavor.

The pasta dish described is a pretty basic one, with the liquid from the pulled pork serving as sauce for the noodles. You could, however, choose to incorporate pulled pork into a different pasta dish. For starters, it makes a transformative topping or mix-in for mac and cheese. In fact, pulled pork mac and cheese is a pretty standard item on many restaurant menus, including that of Noodles & Company.

It's also possible to add pulled pork to marinara sauce as a topping for spaghetti. Barbecue sauce may seem like an unusual addition, but then, various international spaghetti dishes like the ketchupy Japanese naporitan or Jollibee-style Filipino spaghetti have tomato-based sweet sauces. Barbecue sauce is frequently used on pizzas, too, so pairing barbecue pork with spaghetti may not be as unprecedented as it seems. Pulled pork could also be added to alfredo sauce to make a pasta topping that's sweet, rich, and creamy, and of course, it makes an excellent addition to a ramen bowl.

Pulled pork also works well in pasta salad. A recipe from the Food Network show "Down Home with the Neelys" calls for combining fusilli pasta with mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, and pulled pork, along with bell peppers, celery, and scallions for color and crunch. That's just one interpretation of such a dish, however. As long as you have both pulled pork and cooked pasta (either hot or cold), you may assemble these ingredients with any additions you wish.