Culinary Culture: Mediterranean

Since ancient times, settlers, colonizers, and empires spread out across the area, introducing new produce, utensils, and methods, and leaving their mark everywhere. The first wave of colonists -- the Phoenecians, Greeks, and Romans -- established the trinity of wheat, olives and vines. The Arabs, who were the dominant force beginning in the seventh century (they occupied part of Spain for 700 years and Sicily for 200), established new trading systems and spread the cultivation of foods such as rice, sugarcane, apricots, and oranges (bitter oranges and lemons were known to the Romans), pomegranates, dates, bananas, artichokes, spinach, and eggplants. Other important influences were the kingdom of Catalunya, which conquered Sicily, Sardinia and Naples and penetrated the south of France; and the crown of Aragon, which had possessions around the Mediterranean.

The Normans and the Republic of Venice, which had colonies as far away as Alezandria, also introduced their cooking styles to the Mediterranean shores. One of the greatest unifying forces was the Ottoman Empire, which lasted for 500 years until its collapse at the end of World War I. It spread a style of cooking, drawn from its conquered territories, to all the nations in the empire.

Apart from empires and colonists, movements of populations contributed to an interchange of cooking styles: the Moors returned to North Africa after their expulsion from Spain, Tunisians moved to Palermo to build the cathedral, Sicilian peasants were brought to Algeria by the French colonists to work the land, troubadours and jongleurs from southern France were seen in Italy and Catalonia, and spice merchants and itinerant traders were seen everywhere. More recently, the French pieds noirs, resettling in the south of France, and immigrant workers from North Africa, have had an enormous impact.

A surprisingly unified culinary culture was woven from these disparate threads: Andalusia, Provence, and southern Italy have more in common with their maritime neighbors than with the northern regions of their own countries. Throughout the Mediterranean cooks use the same clay pots, the same wood-burning ovens, mortars and pestles, skewers, and grills. You find similar dishes: cooked vegetables preserved in olive oil and eaten cold, stuffed vegetables, fluffy vegetable omelettes, rice dishes, creamy puddings, almond pastries and tomato sauce, the signature of Mediterranean cuisine.