Learn Italian: La torta è pronta, la voglio assaggiare. - The cake is ready, I want to taste it.

Yes, absolutely! This is the main rule for pronouns with modal verbs like volere (to want). When a modal verb is paired with an infinitive verb like assaggiare, you can either put the pronoun before the conjugated verb (la voglio assaggiare) or attach it to the end of the infinitive by dropping its final -e (voglio assaggiarla). Both versions mean exactly the same thing and are very common.

The word la appears twice in this sentence. Are they doing the same job?

No, they are two completely different types of words! The first La is a definite article meaning "the" (La torta = The cake). The second la is a direct object pronoun meaning "it". We use the feminine pronoun la here because it refers back to the feminine noun torta.

What is the difference between assaggiare and mangiare?

While mangiare just means "to eat" a regular meal or portion, assaggiare specifically means "to taste" or "to try" a little bit of food or drink. You do this to see if you like it, or in this case, to check if the freshly baked cake turned out well!

Why does the sentence use pronta instead of pronto?