Yes, but you need to make the proper calls to the proper model methods. You will also need to make certain you are storing the information correctly in the array you are passing to save. So let's say you are adding a record to the places
table. Let's say your schema looks like this:
CREATE TABLE 'places' (
`id` CHAR(36) NOT NULL,
`reference_id` CHAR(36) NULL,
`name` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
);
Then you have the following:
$data['Place']['name'] = 'New York';
// create the first record to get the PK ID that will
// be used in the reference_id of the next record
$this->Place->create();
$this->Place->save($data);
// set the reference ID to the ID of the previously saved record
$data['Place']['reference_id'] = $this->Place->id;
// create the next record recording the previous ID as
// the reference_id
$this->Place->create();
$this->Place->save($data);