This is a pretty popular food related question! I'm sure more can be said on the topic of pre-tomatoes Italian cuisine but u/Grombrindal18 provides an answer here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/bbplkr/what_was_italian_cuisine_like_before_tomatoes/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

And u/jschooltiger provides a nice hub of related questions and answers in that same link.