Allow me to strongly recommend "The Taste of Conquest," by Michael Krondl. It's a culinarian's point of view on the history of the spice trade through the eras of control by Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam, with a look at the recipes and other uses for the spices back home; it also critically examines the fact that much of the spice trade never went near Europe. Krondl also challenges some of the old adages like "spices were used to preserve food" (they don't, and those who could afford them could afford fresh meat) and "medieval food was overspiced" (fine feasts might have ridiculous amounts of spice per person, but they also had ridiculous amounts of food per person).

Some examples include the use of black pepper, sugar, saffron, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves to flavour meat dishes. I strongly recommend you pick the book up.

To add to his original question what spices would have been considered common to western Europe?

Spices were also put to many different uses as just food. There were traces of Frankincense (Which grows in Southern Arabia) on Egyptian mummies. They were burned in religious or spiritual festivities, and we still use incense in this way today. Also some spices were turned to powder and used for flavoring wine or in a perfume. Spices also played an important role as medicine, in all sorts of magical potions and whatever wizardry you can imagine spices could be used as a profitable commodity. Also most spices have high durability, and their high value made them excellent to use as money.

Depending on the specific time period of which you're interested, the exact spices used throughout the Middle Ages varied wildly. It's almost as analogous as saying, "What are all the ways you can cook beef?"

Nevertheless, there have been a number of medieval cookbooks recovered and translated. Most notably of these is, of course, Du fait de cuisine, written by the French master chef Chiquart in the early fifteenth century. Similarly, another nice reference is Apicius which covers Roman food from the 4th and 5th centuries AD. While it is not the Middle Ages, it still uses a wide variety of spices and herbs in its recipes. Both of these texts are freely accessible online if you are interested.

Du fait de cuisine ("On Cookery") isn't much of a cookbook as it is, simply, a list of all the food items that one can consider for a great feast. In his own words, "...I should leave in writing some of the science of the art of cookery especially since, as you say and affirm, I am learned and competent in this science and art, for your consideration and pleasure..." Master Chiquart here is writing to Amadeus the 8th, Duke of Savoy, France. Chiquart notes using the following spices in his cooking: white ginger, Mecca ginger, cinnamon, grains of paradise, pepper, saffron, nutmeg, cloves, sage, and mace - among others.

Looking through Du fait, you can see a few recipes he provides, almost all of which include some kind of spice. There are around 80 or so recipes in all. I will provide one example: A capon (rooster) stew. In this recipe, Chiquart suggests combining the rooster alongside leftover meats, such as veal or lamb, chopped onions, bacon fat, almonds, beef broth, and white wine. To this he adds ground "white ginger, grain of paradise, pepper, nutmeg, ... cloves and mace, and saffron" and of course, salt.

Now you have to remember that Master Chiquart was cooking for high royalty. Even most noblemen did not have access to the wealth of ingredients that he did. I highly recommend you check out these manuscripts if you are truly interested in this topic. There's also a nice Greek agricultural book called Geoponika that may or may not have spices in it. I recall that it's mainly more of a Farmer's Almanac, but I know it covers some fascinating procedures for making wine and olive oil.