I love my casserole. Or Dutch Oven. Or big pot. Whatever you want to call it. It was one of the very first pieces of cookware I bought when I moved into accomdoation with an actual kitchen. We're not talking a Le Cruset - this is a genuine 100% knock off (I think it's called La Cuisine) but it is, at the end of the day a very big, very heavy, cast iron pot. And it's red, which is fun.
The casserole, as a piece of cookware, signals heartiness. Community. Warmth. Or something like that. The bigger the pot, the greater the implication that the food cooked within it is for sharing. And that's surely one of the best things to do with food. Which, therefore, makes the Big Pot the best piece of cookware. And why it should be part of any kitchen.
It doesn't matter what you want to cook, as long as you want to cook a lot of it. Soup? Sorted. Pasta sauce? You bet. Stew? And how! A roast chicken? Not really my thing, but absolutely go for it. Confit salmon? The list is endless. It's the Ur-Pot, the root of all cooking.
So this is a page dedicated to all things that you can cook in a big pot, in the name of conviviality and good living.