Our culture is rich thanks to the products which arrived from distant countries. Photo: Karpenov Denis/Dreamstime
Occasionally, someone will speak of the real origins of spaghetti. It is one of those questions close to our hearts but it’s hidden behind a truth which few know very well. The world market has not existed for only a short amount of time and over time it has had the ability to “alter” the distances, which today can only surprise us. 
 
In 2004, researchers at the University of Cincinnati announced a surprising discovery in Pompeii that overshadowed the above debate about our national dish. 
 
During the analysis of the products found inside a Roman meat market, traces of giraffe meat were found, along with exotic spices from Indonesia, which was even more unexpected. 
 
Many historians believe that the continuous clash between the Romans and the Parthians, have had to have origins in commercial trade along the Silk Road. In fact, we have known for a while that the Romans used silk, an exclusive Chinese product at that time, but the Indonesian spices clearly demonstrate that the commercial network of the ancient period was much more extensive than China, which was then not yet an empire. 
 
Many of us think of the ancient world as one geographically limited but we forget that Alessander the Great went to India and in the Anabasis, Xenophon told the story of the Greek soldiers who were lost in the Persian Empire in the fourth century BC. Solely from these two facts should we have understood that the commercial and intellectual exchanges between continents goes back further to periods in time that are more ancient than we think. 
 
History shows that our important periods often coincide with new encounters between civilizations and always with important consequences for both ancient powers. 
 
We study the period of the Crusades in order to learn about the adventures and the misfortunes of Christian crusades and maybe the chivalrous gestures of Saladin, but we do not take note that that period had profound effects on the economy and on the culture of what most people consider the Old Continent. 
It would be quite easy to speak of about the introduction of new products for European food supply.
 
Let’s begin from sugar, which gets its name from the Arabic word sukkar, as do apricots and other fruits, to arrive at the new spices and to the culinary methods unfamiliar to those areas of Europe that had not had a direct Arab occupation as Sicily and Iberian Peninsula had had.  
 
However, as much as we love food, the most important effects of this period were in various cultural and scientific fields. 
 
Anyone who has studied the Italian Renaissance knows that one of the inspirations of the New Art was the discovery of old works from both Roman and Greek ancient times. The respect that the Arabs had for these great writers was even greater than that of the same Europeans that had despised them and had tried to nullify as pagan representatives of a past that was incompatible with the precepts of Christianity. If we know much of our classical past, it is thanks to these unexpected discoveries made by the Crusaders. 
 
The other key area that benefited from the discoveries of the Kingdom of the Franks, was of course, the scientific aspect. An interesting proof was found in the trial of the Templars, where one of the charges against the knights were their friendly relations with the Arabs. And yet, among these very important relationships,  there were those with Arab doctors, for the simple fact that the Middle Eastern doctors had the means and knowledge to treat and to heal wounds and cure sicknesses that were still fatal for the European doctors. 
 
One can only wonder how many of those who say that the Arabs made only a few contributions to our culture and scientists know that the numbers which we use today are of Arab origin and were introduced in Europe by the Italian mathematician, Fibonacci in the 20th century of the first Christian millennium. The introduction of these numbers, as well as algebra, another Arabic word, and other important mathematical concepts, have made an essential contribution to the development of the mathematical sciences which created our modern world. 
 
Anther example. Our modern industrial industries of porcelain, do not have European origins, but in China, where for centuries the aristocratic European families commissioned their sets of dishes and cups. During the 16th and 17th centuries, millions of pieces of porcelain, at an extremely high cost for the Old Continent, were imported annually from the Chinese power. So much money spent on these purchases that in Holland, England, Italy, and in other European countries, local entrepreneurs began to produce the sets as well as  the products that today have become as part of our artistic heritage. A heritage which would have been impossible to reach without this ancient trade. 
 
When we complain of the Chinese and of the other Asian countries which now copy our products, let’s  remember that we were the first ones to copy their products, and not only their ceramics products but also the silk which we imported in Europe to create what would be a major new industry for us. 
 
 Of course, another very important period for the introduction of international products, is that which followed the discovery of the Americas. Pages could be filled up just listing the products introduced from the New World which forever changed food and European industries.  It would be sufficient for us to ask ourselves what kind of cooking we would have today without corn, potatoes, and tomatoes, to understand the enormous impact that the ancient world trade has had on our lifestyle. 
 
What would Italian cooking be today without the tomato?
“The discovery of the tomato has represented, in the history of nutrition, that which the French Revolution had on the development of social consciousness.” This is how the Neapolitan writer, Luciano De Crescenzo translated the impact that the plant had in cooking and in culinary tradition, to which over time has given rise.  Originated in Chile and Ecuador, where their tropical climates offer fruits year round, its cultivation was already widespread in pre-Columbian times in Mexico and Peru. It was then introduced in Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century, not a as an edible plant but rather as an ornamental plant, since at the time it was considered poisonous for its high content of solanine, a substance considered harmful at the time. 
 
In 1544, the Italian herbalist, Pietro Matthioli, classified   it as being among the poisonous spices. Two centuries were needed for the tomato to reach the European kitchens and become an unavoidable product for many recipes and for popular alimentation. Only at the end of the 18th century, did the cultivation of tomatoes for food  experience a strong boost in Europe, mainly in France and in southern Italy. But, while in France the tomato was only eaten in the court of the kings, in Naples it quickly spread among the population historically oppressed by hunger. It was not until the 19th century that the tomato was placed in the first European treaties on gastronomy, as in the 1819 edition of “Cuoco Galante” – the Galant Cook, by the great Neapolitan   court chef, Vincenzo Corrado, where he shares many recipes with stuffed and fried tomatoes. 
 
Even the introduction of tobacco and chocolate had a huge effect, firstly in the lifestyle of the aristocrats and the wealthy, and later in the various layers of the European society, reaching even the poor. 
 
A case that even became tragic, shows how deep the economic and social impact of the potato was. 
 
Considered to be the new food for the poor, it took a short time for the potato to become the basis for nutrition in Ireland for the population, completely revolu-tionizing eating habits which had gone on for centuries.  It was between 1850 and 1852, when a disease that affected the cultivation of this root vegetable occurred, not only was there a shortage of this tuber, but it was also the cause of severe famine which struck the island. It was precisely this famine, which struck a huge percentage of the population making them die of starvation, that drove thousands and thousands of Irish to emigrate to the Americas. 
 
Finally, colonialism took a step further with the introduction of other products from other colonies. To give a funny example, the famous Worces-tershire Sauce, considered to be an icon of the modern day British cooking and now often used in Italy, was the result of an attempt to copy the recipe of a sauce which was originally produced in a British colony in the Indian subcontinent.
 
Every time we go to the supermarket and we see new products, it is often a result of the changes in the Italian demography due to the new immigrants.  However, we must remember and understand that these new products and changes are not new to the country, they are thousands of years old and have always been part of our history and tradition since before the birth of the Roman Empire. 
 
Our culture is rich thanks to these products which arrived from distant countries and to the many concepts and knowledge introduced from abroad in a past so distant that we think is ours without  remembering that it was due to a ‘contamination’.
 
Therefore, by continuing to be open to new ideas, does nothing more than make our future so much richer with opportunities of growth. 

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