Hi, you might want to check out these older answers from our VFAQ:
I can't speak for Spanish cooking, but here's a good answer for ancient Italian/Roman cooking
Extra question from me: How would they have brought them over from the New World? Did they bring seeds and or somehow get them across fresh?
Follow up question about potatoes:
Northern European countries rely heavily on potatoes and they are very popular in India too, what did they use before potatoes became available?
If you know Spanish, here's a very good article about it: Eating in Spain (and part of Europe) before the discovery of America If you don't, I would say that the article's automatic translation by Google is fairly decent.
P.S.: one day in high school we had a special lunch consisting only of typical Al Andalus dishes. We also studied their origins and if there were any modern variations nowadays and everything was absolutely delicious.