Middle Ages

During the Dark Ages, most Italians could only dream of feasting while facing the daily challenge of getting enough to eat. Their homeland was overrun by barbarians, who had a habit of devouring anything edible they could pillage. Eventually, though, some foreigners contributed new foods. The Arabs, who occupied southern Italy in the 9th century, brought cane sugar, spices, raisins and candied fruits that set the lasting styles for sweets and ices in the Mezzogiorno.

The origins of pasta in Italy had been credited to sources ranging over time from the ancient Greeks to Marco Polo, who supposedly returned to Venice with noodles from the Orient in the late 13th century. But documented evidence of a pasta industry was attributed to Arabs in 12th-century Sicily. From there the cult spread gradually through the south (where dried maccheroni and spaghetti have always prevailed) and on to points north (where eggs were often used in dough for fresh pasta noodles and stuffed envelopes).

Before the advent of pasta, generations of Italians used grains or chestnuts or chickpea pastes for breads, cakes, dumplings, polenta-like mush and gruels. Flatbreads acquired toppings long before Neapolitans came up with the pizza that went on to conquer the world.

Diets improved in the late Middle Ages, with the growing prosperity of city states and the arrival of edibles from other places. Venetian, Genoese and Pisan traders distributed choice goods around Italy, while introducing Mediterranean flavors to northern Europe. With spices from the east came rice, which proved more productive than other grains of the time, though only in recent eras did Po valley dwellers light upon the secrets of risotto.