Sara's Weeknight Meals

Sara's guest Cristina Bowerman is the only Michelin starred female chef in Rome. The two of them go on a delicious journey through Trastevere to pick up ingredients for her meatless Celeriac and Orange pizza topped with tea and herb oil. In her own kitchen Sara continues the vegetarian Italian theme with a Spaghetti Squash pasta with walnuts and a creamy goat cheese sauce.

Naples and Sorrento, are neighboring Italian seaside towns with wildly different food traditions. In Naples, Sara’s on the hunt for the perfect pizza in the place where it all started. Across the bay in Sorrento, it’s all lemons all the time as Sara visits a proud family of lemon growers. They make a citrus flecked cheese and Grandma’s Lemon Pasta in a lemon grove overlooking the Mediterranean.

Parma, Italy is a small town with a huge culinary footprint, home to Parmesan cheese, Prosciutto di Parma and some of the best tomatoes in Italy. All three go into a dish Sara cooks with a local chef right on the farm where the food is grown and is served with Sara's Parsley salad on the side. Later, Sara cooks with Italian American chef Joey Campanaro.

How do you make any dish even more delicious? Some would argue, just add cheese. To prove this point Sara’s got two recipes elevated by our favorite milk product: a French Onion Soup Burger topped with melty, gooey cheese and an equally gooey Alsatian Onion Pie with caramelized onions and melted Gruyere. Later, a visit to a dairy farm where the cows are treated like queens and a homemade ricotta.

Easy weeknight cooking takes strategy, and Sara has one of the best: cooking a dish one night, then repurposing it into a different meal for another night. Food entrepreneur Maya Kaimal joins Sara to make Turkey Keema with sweet potatoes and ground meat, which morphs into Indian stuffed peppers another night. Then Sara Sautee’s Duck Breasts for a quick meal. She uses those in a Peking Duck Wrap.

Holidays and special occasions call for showstopping main courses that take a little extra time. Vegetarians, this one’s for you – Sara’s elegant Butternut Squash and Date Crostata sits comfortably next to the holiday turkey as a main dish. Or you can wow them with Sara’s crispy Roast Duck with Duck Fat Popovers.

Cooking fish can be tricky but not with these easy, foolproof fish recipes. First, Sara is joined by food journalist and influencer Anna Gass (who also happened to be her former intern) to make Pesce all’Acqua Pazza - a simple fish poached in a cherry tomato sauce that prevents overcooking. Then Sara goes to tiny, romantic Key West to cook with renowned seafood chef Norman Van Aken.

In Spain, paella is so popular there are competitions between towns for the best recipe. It is especially so in Valencia, where Sara cooks with local chef Franck Garanger. At the local market, he finds his secret ingredients for a showstopping paella, cooked outdoors, on the open fire, overlooking the sea. Then, Sara sautés fish topped with a colorful Gazpacho Vinaigrette.

A street food tour in Rome; pastries and Roman deep fried rice balls; baked penne.

Sara travels to Arkansas to discover how local farmers turn their land into sanctuaries for migrating birds in the off season. One of the farmers shows her his family’s favorite deep fried Rice balls and Catfish. In Sara’s kitchen, her old friend Airis Johnson digs deep to her Louisiana Creole roots to show how quick Jambalaya can be. It’s the hands down best recipe for this New Orleans favorite!