Labor Day weekend is the point every year where my kitchen goes back to being the busiest room in the house. The grilling slows down, the oven comes back on, and I start actually cooking again instead of assembling everything cold. So it felt like the right moment to give my kitchen a little attention, and to talk about the one pan that has quietly taken over my stove.

It is the Caraway Cream Ceramic Nonstick 4.5 Quart Sauté Pan, and I reach for it more than anything else I own.

Why I moved to ceramic

Traditional nonstick pans can start giving off fumes after only a couple of minutes on high heat. That is not something I want in my kitchen or in my food, so I switched to ceramic coated cookware. Caraway’s coating is free of PTFE, PFOA and heavy metals, and it sits on an aluminum core, so the heat spreads evenly across the whole surface instead of pooling in one hot spot in the middle. The handles are stainless steel and stay comfortable to hold.

It really does need less oil

The ceramic surface is naturally slick, so a little oil or butter goes a long way. Eggs slide. Fish does not weld itself to the bottom. And because nothing sticks, cleaning up is a rinse and a wipe instead of a scrub, which is the part that changed my evenings more than anything else.

What I actually cook in it

Four and a half quarts with a lid covers most of what I make. It is deep enough for a full pan of chicken thighs with vegetables around them, and wide enough to brown things properly without crowding, which is where most weeknight dinners go wrong. The lid means it goes from searing to simmering without moving anything into a second pot. It is oven safe to 550 degrees, so it can finish under heat, and it works on gas, electric, glass and most induction cooktops.

How I take care of mine

A ceramic pan lasts a long time if you treat it well, and the rules are simple.

• Low to medium heat only. Ceramic does not need high heat, and high heat is what wears the surface down.
• One to two tablespoons of oil or butter, and skip the aerosol sprays, which leave a residue that builds up over time.
• Wood, nylon or silicone utensils. Never metal.
• Hand wash rather than the dishwasher, since that heat shortens the life of the coating.
• Store it without stacking anything on top of it.

It also just looks good sitting out

The other reason it lives on my stove is that I like looking at it. Cream with stainless steel handles, nothing loud about it. I stopped putting it away months ago and my kitchen looks better for it.

Would I tell a friend to buy it

Yes, and it is the piece I point people to first. When someone tells me they want to move away from traditional nonstick but does not want to replace their whole kitchen at once, one good sauté pan is a better starting point than a full set. This is the one I use for most weeknight dinners, it is the one I would keep if I could only keep one, and it has held up to being used almost every day. Heading into fall, with more of us cooking inside again, that is the piece I would want in your kitchen too.

The Labor Day sale

Caraway’s Labor Day sale is on right now and every set is included. My code stacks another 10 percent on top of the sale price, so it is worth using even on something already marked down.

This pan was a gift from Caraway, and the links below are commissionable.

Code: OLYACREATIVE

Shop here: rstr.co/caraway/67596

If you have been thinking about building a set rather than buying one piece at a time, a sale is the moment to do it, since the savings scale with the size of the order.

You can follow along with Caraway at @caraway_home. #FRIENDSOFCARAWAY