There's one size in the kitchen that gets used more than any other. Not the one for special occasions, not the one for Sundays with the whole family. The everyday one, on the heat almost every evening, that knows by heart the taste of sauce, beans and seasonal vegetables. The 16 cm terracotta pot is that size. The most used, the most useful, fitting neatly into any kitchen without taking up too much space and never short of what you need.
 
 
 
Maurizio makes it in Altomonte, in an artisan workshop in the province of Cosenza. The process has always been the same: clay from the Calabrian hills is thrown on the wheel, glazed by hand with non-toxic glazes and fired in the kiln. Every pot from that workshop differs from the next by a few millimetres, a shade of colour. They're the proof of handwork that uses no moulds, copies nothing identically, and leaves on every piece the mark of its maker.
 
 
 
The 16 cm pot is the one for Tuesday's pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans). For 'nduja sauce made in twenty minutes that tastes as if it had cooked for hours. For lentils with pork rind, for peperoni cruschi (crispy dried Calabrian peppers) in hot oil, for thick vegetable soups served hot in winter. It's the size that covers most home recipes without having to choose between too small and too big.
 
 
 
What terracotta does differently from metal is in the heat. It doesn't concentrate it on the base or blast it straight up: it spreads it from all the walls, holds it and keeps it steady even once the flame is low. That's what makes the difference in a long-cooked sauce: the flavours blend, the liquid stays, and the bottom doesn't burn even if you don't stir constantly. Anyone who has cooked in terracotta once understands at once why Calabria never stopped using it.
 
 
 
This pot works on gas, on a cast-iron plate and in a conventional oven. The only thing to watch is sudden temperature change: after cooking, let it cool before putting it under water. Hot clay doesn't forgive sudden cold, and a crack can form in an instant. Wait for it to cool, wash it, put it away. That's all.
 
 
 
In Calabria these pots stayed in home kitchens, in farmhouse dressers, in the hands of people who still cook the old way. Not as museum pieces but as tools: something you use, get dirty, wash and put back on the heat. Terracotta ages well if treated with respect: it gains a patina, darkens with use, and carries the memory of everything cooked in it.
 
 
 
Braalla offers it as part of a way of cooking that's in no hurry to get anywhere. A way that knows the difference between a sauce made in five minutes and one made in forty – and already knows which one it wants to eat.
 
 
 
Diameter: 16cm Ø. Handmade in Altomonte. Non-toxic glazes. Suitable for gas, cast-iron plates and conventional ovens.