A cold rainy Tuesday is no time for experimentation, but a day to empty the fridge. A pasta sauce with the leftover short rib, a tin of tomatoes, and a slow-cooked soffritto* is just the ticket.

*If there were only one key to Italian cooking (a ridiculous hypothesis), the soffritto would be it: a slow saute of aromatic vegetables - carrot, onion, celery, garlic - and tomato paste in olive oil until it becomes a paste of pure flavor on which to build a sauce.