Milk-fed lamb is a traditional Easter dish. In Palermo, the white and tender meat of the agnello, the lamb, is prepared and combines well with the aggrassata sauce, a light wine gravy, thickened by the flour coating of the lamb and the starch released by the crispy new potatoes, that without fail go with it. 

Milk-fed lamb stew is a traditional Easter plate prepared in Palermo. This recipe is simple to make and it is delicious; it is a unique dish which can only be prepared and tasted at this time of the year when milk-fed lamb and young potatoes are available. The word aggrassatu derives from the French glacer which in Latin means coating: in fact, the lamb must be very lightly coated with flour before being sautéed. This word was adopted in the 13th century; as it is mentioned in other recipes, when Beatrix, the daughter of Raymond-Berenger IV, Count of Provence, married Charles I d’Anjou, king of Sicily who lived in Palermo, made an effort to Frenchify Sicilian cooking and the term infarinare, coating was translated in the Provencal or Occitan glacer and morphed into the Sicilian word aggrassatu. The Occitan are people speaking a Latin dialect; they occupy parts of the southern part of Europe, and particularly the area of Catalonia in Spain, parts of La Provence in France, and in Italy in the area now known as Piedmont, and Liguria and the town of Guardia Piamontese, in Calabria.

This sauce is made very simply, without aromatic herbs, not to alter the savor of the lamb. The kid, il capretto or baby goat can be used instead of lamb; it is preferred by some families because of the slight piquant smell and the more savory taste and it can be cooked aggrassato like lamb.

The capretto is generally marinated in acidulated water with a few tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar, then rinsed 2 to 3 times with running water. Follow the same cooking method as for the lamb. In the countryside the lamb or capretto is mostly baked or barbequed; the meat is rubbed with olive oil and flavored with garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Typically the lamb or kid and diced new potatoes, in season around Easter, are baked at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes for each pound of meat. If in doubt about the baking time, ask your butcher or somebody who can help you. Buy only milk feed agnello or capretto, 6 to 8 weeks old and weighing not more than 22 pounds.