For three thousand years, Spain has been a crossroad of peoples, cultures, and cuisines. Phoenicians, Celts, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Vandals, Visigoths, and Jew all migrated to Spain, sometimes as settlers, more often as conquerors. A lasting impression was made by the Moors--the collective term for a succession of peoples, mainly Arabs from the Middle East and Berbers from North Africa--who brought Islamic culture and religion to the Iberian Peninsula during almost eight centuries of occupation and rule. Later, Gypsies, Native Americans, Italians, and French also contributed culinary and cultural influences that can still be seen and tasted in the cooking of Spain today.
Soon after the Phoenicians landed on Iberia's southern shores three millennia ago, they began to plant grapes in the area that today produces Spain's well-known sherry wines. The Phoenicians are also credited with introducing saffron to the Iberian Peninsula. Greeks planted the first hazelnut tree in Spain, and Carthaginians brought cooking techniques from North Africa. The Romans, who arrived circa 200 B.C., added walnuts, garlic, sweet-and-sour sauces, and olives--thus olive oil--to Iberian cuisine. The Romans also planted wheat fields and vineyards, constructed irrigation systems, and introduced lemons, oranges, and almonds. Pork, in all its forms, was the Romans' preferred meat. Not until subsequent invasions by the Vandals and Visigoths, in the fifth and sixth centuries, did sheep raising--and the eating of lamb and mutton--become important in Spain.
When the Moors invaded Iberia in 711, they swept northward from southern Spain, conquering much of the Peninsula within a few years. Resistance to Moorish domination eventually pushed the invaders southward until they occupied only part of modern-day Andalusia. But during the 770 years that the Moors remained in Spain, they made an indelible mark on Spanish agriculture, architecture, poetry, music, customs, and cuisine.
The Moors brought a host of new foods to the Iberian Peninsula, including rice, sugar cane, dates, melons, bananas, quinces, citrons, and coconuts; artichokes, eggplants, carrots, beets, asparagus, and spinach; and spices such as cumin and nutmeg. They planted thousands of almond, orange, and lemon trees and prepared elaborate dishes that combined fish with almond and pine nuts, meats with citrus fruits, and poultry with olives--dishes often highly spiced with cinnamon, saffron, cumin, anise, and sesame seeds. And the Moors indulged their sweet tooth with an assortment of rich cakes, cookies, and confections made with almond paste, honey, and candied
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