Sara CagleSep 22, 20206 min10 life lessons from 14 months in ItalyWell, I’m back home in the U.S. after spending a little over a year in Florence, Italy, where I fulfilled my dream of going to culinary...
Sara CagleJul 31, 202017 minHow to travel through Puglia without a car: A complete two-week itineraryYou’ll hear many times that traveling in Puglia, the southeastern heel of Italy's boot, is easiest with a car. This is true. It gives you...
Sara CagleJul 28, 20205 minWhy I love PugliaOther than mounds of orecchiette and secluded rocky beaches, I didn’t know what to expect from Puglia, the southern region at the heel of...
Sara CagleJun 30, 20204 min10 fun facts from a month on a farmIf there’s anything I’ve done more times during my month of WWOOFing than hug the Bernese mountain dogs or squint out at Florence in...
Sara CagleJun 16, 20205 minWWOOFing in Tuscany, reveling in the repetitive and embracing changeOne year ago, I came to culinary school in Florence seeking a change. Now I’m finished with classes and am volunteering on a farm in the...
Sara CagleMay 10, 20204 minThoughts after a week in Phase 2Last Friday I took my first walk in nearly two months. It was May 1, and the Italian government announced that people would be finally...
Sara CagleMay 6, 20206 minRecipes from my quarantine cooking challengeIf you are my mom, my friend, my mom's friend, or someone who likes pictures of pasta, you may have participated in my quarantine cooking...
Sara CagleApr 19, 20205 minThe big and little things I'm grateful for during the lockdownI’ve been joking (or not so joking) to my friends and family that we all need things to look forward to these days. For some people (my...
Sara CagleApr 3, 20206 minThe friends I never knew I'd meet in culinary schoolOlive Garden’s slogan used to be, “When you’re here, you’re family.” It suggests that your meal isn’t just about the food; it’s about who...
Sara CagleMar 19, 20207 minHow the coronavirus lockdown has changed the way I cook, plus my favorite #quarantinecuisine recipesI would’ve thought that suddenly finding myself living through an earth-altering pandemic would change my priorities. Maybe I’d ponder...
Sara CagleMar 13, 20206 minA long overdue food-shop crawl in Florence, a last hurrah before the coronavirus lockdownBack in January, during the kind of sunset stroll in Florence that always makes me sigh with admiration and fantasize about making...
Sara CagleFeb 4, 20203 minFebruary is a good time to be a dessert lover in FlorenceIn the fall, when Florence's supermarkets and pastry shops were full of schiacciata con l'uva — the city's famous flatbread studded with...
Sara CagleJan 15, 20205 minMy arms hurt! Pasta, squid, and yet another surge of respect for restaurant cooksIt seems that all of my cooking tasks this week were designed to work my muscles — not just my culinary mind and physical posture, but my...
Sara CagleDec 31, 20198 minMy favorite culinary techniques from Cooking Light and Molecular CuisineI had some doubts about the two classes I'd be taking at the end of my fall semester in culinary school. First, there would be Cooking...
Sara CagleNov 15, 20195 minIt sure feels good being uselessI usually feel guilty about doing nothing. It seems like doing nothing (i.e. watching TV, reading a book, lying down on my bed and...
Sara CagleOct 28, 20197 minTurning over a new leaf in November — plus some recipesOctober was not my month. After a week of eating everything in sight in Sicily, I returned to school at the beginning of the month to...
Sara CagleOct 12, 20196 minThe extreme act of eating in SicilyThere was blood everywhere. Pooled on the ground and into buckets. Crusted on fishermen's boots and in their fingernails. Swirling in...
Sara CagleOct 2, 201910 minWhat it's like to work in a restaurant kitchen for the first time ever I was so unsure of myself the first few days of working in a restaurant kitchen that I might as well have never cooked anything before in...
Sara CagleSep 17, 20193 minMy favorite bready thing in Florence doesn't involve cheese, cured meat or cow stomach...It involves grapes. Tons and tons of sweet, squishy, in-season grapes. It's called schiacciata all'uva, and it's a fruity twist on...
Sara CagleSep 12, 20195 minMom's visit to FlorenceI realized many moons ago that my mom will always love me no matter what, that she is the most important person in my life, and that I...