‘I may have turned into a sausage by the time you read this’: the best casserole dishes for stews and pasta sauces – tested

Potluck: our writer looking decidedly un-sausage-like, but thrilled with her findings. Photograph: Sophie Wyburd/The Guardian

We are now firmly in slow-cooking season. Each weekend, you’ll likely find me tinkering over a pot in the kitchen, glass of wine in hand, tunes on, before retiring to the sofa to watch a film while the scent of beef shin ragu wafts through the house. A good casserole dish is essential to bring this vision into reality.

Many of my favourite meals emerge from them – from stews and lasagnes to gratins and pasta sauces. The quality of your casserole dish plays a vital role in how pleasurable the process of cooking such things is, so I’ve put some to the test.