Italy suffered many raids from the Arab people since the 7th century. They conquered Sicily and settle here for about 200 years until the arrival of Normans. During this time, Arab bring some changes to the Italian food culture. We find these changes above all in many Sicilian dishes but also in many dishes of the Southern Italy.

Arab bring to Italy the use of sweet and sour flavors that we find in one of the oldest recipe of the Neapolitan tradition: the meatballs with pine nuts and raisins. Same things we find in the famous Caponata. In this recipe, in fact, onions, pepper and potatoes meet sugar, pine nuts and raisins.