Cookware · Hearths
Caçarola
A Portuguese casserole, often earthenware: the pot for a refogado, a rice, and a stew that wants a wide quiet heat.
The journey
Caçarola is the everyday Portuguese pot the equipment lists actually write down — more often than the cataplana, which is the feast. It is wide enough for a refogado of onion and bay, deep enough for rice or a pork stew, and often clay so the heat stays gentle.
Sixty-four recipes in the Portuguese volume name it. That is the weekday kitchen talking, not the Algarve postcard.
In the kitchen
Sweat onion in olive oil until the kitchen smells like a house. Add the rice or the meat. Keep the flame civil. Serve from the pot.
The Portuguese book treats the caçarola as assumed furniture. The cataplana is for clams. This is for Tuesday.