10 life lessons from 14 months in Italy
Well, 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...
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Sara Cagle
- Jul 31, 2020
- 17 min
How to travel through Puglia without a car: A complete two-week itinerary
You’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 Cagle
- Jul 28, 2020
- 5 min
Why I love Puglia
Other 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 Cagle
- Jun 30, 2020
- 4 min
10 fun facts from a month on a farm
If 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 Cagle
- Jun 16, 2020
- 5 min
WWOOFing in Tuscany, reveling in the repetitive and embracing change
One 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 Cagle
- May 10, 2020
- 4 min
Thoughts after a week in Phase 2
Last 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 Cagle
- May 6, 2020
- 6 min
Recipes from my quarantine cooking challenge
If 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 Cagle
- Apr 19, 2020
- 5 min
The big and little things I'm grateful for during the lockdown
I’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 Cagle
- Apr 3, 2020
- 6 min
The friends I never knew I'd meet in culinary school
Olive 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 Cagle
- Mar 19, 2020
- 7 min
How the coronavirus lockdown has changed the way I cook, plus my favorite #quarantinecuisine recipes
I would’ve thought that suddenly finding myself living through an earth-altering pandemic would change my priorities. Maybe I’d ponder...
Sara Cagle
- Mar 13, 2020
- 6 min
A long overdue food-shop crawl in Florence, a last hurrah before the coronavirus lockdown
Back in January, during the kind of sunset stroll in Florence that always makes me sigh with admiration and fantasize about making...
Sara Cagle
- Feb 4, 2020
- 3 min
February is a good time to be a dessert lover in Florence
In the fall, when Florence's supermarkets and pastry shops were full of schiacciata con l'uva — the city's famous flatbread studded with...
Sara Cagle
- Jan 15, 2020
- 5 min
My arms hurt! Pasta, squid, and yet another surge of respect for restaurant cooks
It 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 Cagle
- Dec 31, 2019
- 8 min
My favorite culinary techniques from Cooking Light and Molecular Cuisine
I 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 Cagle
- Nov 15, 2019
- 5 min
It sure feels good being useless
I 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 Cagle
- Oct 28, 2019
- 7 min
Turning over a new leaf in November — plus some recipes
October 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 Cagle
- Oct 12, 2019
- 6 min
The extreme act of eating in Sicily
There was blood everywhere. Pooled on the ground and into buckets. Crusted on fishermen's boots and in their fingernails. Swirling in...
Sara Cagle
- Oct 2, 2019
- 10 min
What 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 Cagle
- Sep 17, 2019
- 3 min
My 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 Cagle
- Sep 12, 2019
- 5 min
Mom's visit to Florence
I 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...
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