BBQ Spaghetti

Cooks in Memphis, Tennessee, like to transform all kinds of food into barbecue, not just ribs, Cornish hens, and bologna, but also shrimp, pizza, wings, and – among side dishes on a majority of the city’s smoke-pit eateries – spaghetti. It makes culinary sense. Sharply-spiced, smoky meat is best appreciated in concert with soft-flavored carbs. That is why the bread that traditionally accompanies barbecue is bland and uninteresting. Likewise, BBQ spaghetti is never made with deluxe pasta. Its noodles are common ones cooked well beyond al dente. The quality of this dish has nothing to do with the noodles and everything to do with sauce. Memphis is a saucecentric city, which is why barbecue spaghetti thrives – as a handy way to get that sauce from plate to mouth.