Capozelle -- cooked sheep's head

If you're referring to capozelle, most commonly, the main ingredient is cloven (sliced in half top to bottom) kid's (young goat) head, though essentially identical lamb and veal recipes exist as well. With veal, the dish usually is called Bocca di Vitello, with lamb, Bocca Agnello.

Typically, the recipes with which I'm familiar involve slicing the critter's head, removing the hide and fell if not yet done (leaving the ears, eyes and tongue in place), a preparation of breadcrumbs, herbs and spices (usually parsely, oregano, basil, chives, garlic, salt, and black pepper), grated oregano, parmesan, and/or asiago cheese, and sometimes bay/laurel, all in proportion appropriate to the dish to be prepared. The dressed, washed, dried head portions are placed open-side-up in a greased baking dish, liberally dusted with the breadcrumb/herb&spice/grated cheese mixture (filling the cavities generously), then liberally drizzled with olive oil and baked uncovered in a medium (350° F/175° C) oven for 60 to 75 minutes. Sometimes a garnish of sliced tomato is applied to the breadcumb-mixture-coated head portions prior to cooking.

I've had all 3 itterations; each are OK, I s'pose, but none are faves of mine.

At long last, an italian recipe that doesn't appeal to me...

And around 15 mins after eating this "delight",seeing as there's precious little meat on this sucker,you're gonna be hungry again.How could anyone tuck into a head???With the eyes looking at you???? Grosse!!!!!!

Perhaps I'm not the first to ask you, mssk, but why do you need this recipe? I'm very curious to know.

Thank God weve never had to sink this low. Ive eaten Cianne Groppe, a codfish head dish. That sucks too.

Did someone dare you to do that, farmerman? :wink:

Naahh. They had it in a restaurant in Newfoundland. We landed and came ashore to a little place that had it on the meneu. I said I wanted to try it, and I regretted it. Cod Lips are ok, they look like some Botox babe lips and they are meaty . The rest of it , we had to eat so the locals wouldnt be offended.. Never again.

Having butchered a few lambs, I always make a pile to bury and its offal.

I do salt the hides and then send them to a sheepskin processor to turn into hides that we donate to childrens hospitals. They use them for some form of pad for little sick kids (people kids)

Very brave of you, farmer. Actually the name (Cianne Groppe!) would have put me off trying it. But, to be polite, I probably would have done the same as you did. And probably would have told my hosts it was "delicious", or "interesting", or something ......

In my friends house this recipe is called
Testine di Agnello.
Part of his annual Easter cooking.
Not my favorite, although the filling ( breadcrumbs, herbs and lots of Romano Cheese) is
quite tasty.

My mother used to cook a savoury jelly-ish dish from pig's head when we first migrated to Oz. Lots of garlic. Very tasty, it was!

timberlandko, thanks for that recipe and cooking directions.
msolga, I need the recipe because I'm writing a report on ethnic food, and I chose capozelle. It was only after I chose my topic that I could hardly find anything about it.
ul, I've come across that name too, "testine di agnello al forno." I don't know the difference between capozelle and testine di agnello, but I think testine di agnello is a literal translation of what the food is ("head of lamb", and the forno would mean "baked") whereas capozelle is the name of the food.
ossobuco, it's really not that bad. I liked it the first and only time I've tried it.
Thanks for all your replies, much appreciated.

mssk,
all I can telly you is that my Italian friend always refers to testine di agnello or testine peccorino when he cooks it.
Maybe you could research the regional recipes of Italy to find out more.
Regione Basilicata- southern Italy
http://www.gabrylandia.com/Ricette/RicetteRegionali/regioni/RicetteRegionali.asp?IDReg=3#VaiRicet

or google capozelle ricetti and when italian recipe sites show up, click on translate this...

Ah, now that I'm googling for it, I'm seeing your problem..

I am guessing capo-zelle also means head of lamb in dialect..
I have a lot of italian cookbooks, one or two of which might have this mentioned in it, but, no matter, as they are all still packed in boxes.

I think someone like Pelligrino Artusi might have written about it, but don't know.

http://italophiles.com/food.htm (check for Artusi)

Does anyone know where this dish comes from.?
What part of Italy its from?
Thanks