For recipes that call for a crisp topping, this classic au gratin dish provides a wide, shallow cooking area that offers more exposure to heat, while its cast-iron construction makes it useful for everything from deglazing to baking. The oval-shaped dish makes it easy to beautifully present delicious potatoes au gratin as a side for dinner or bubbling fruit cobbler for dessert. Like other pieces in Le creuset's line of enameled cast iron, the cookware's exterior features a colorful, long-lasting enamel that resists chipping and cracking, while its durable, nonreactive sand-colored enamel interior offers a smooth surface for cooking and an optimal palette for food presentation. As cast iron is unexcelled for even heat distribution and superior heat retention and enamel is impervious to acids and odors, the dish cooks food uniformly and gently without hot spots and can be used for marinating, cooking on the stovetop, or finishing in the oven. The cookware also provides traditional scalloped side handles for a secure grip and it can be safely used at any oven temperature, under the broiler and on any stovetop, including induction. Best of all, it moves gracefully from the oven to the table for serving to the refrigerator or freezer for storing leftovers.