What is "cepola"

Cepola is a genus of marine fish in the bandfish family Cepolidae. The name red bandfish is applied to all members of this genus, but particularly C. macrophthalma, and generally not C. australis, which is also known as the Australian bandfish.

Five species are recognised, and there may be a sixth, as yet undescribed, from the waters near Bermuda.

The oldest recorded recipe is for C. macrophthalma. The original recipe book, by Mithaecus, is now lost, but the recipe itself survives thanks to being quoted in the Deipnosophistae.