Meals from pantry ingredients

He looks at Italian food in history from Ancient Rome through to the 20th Century - including what different classes ate, including during times of shortage, war, etc. While not as comprehensive as we'd like, it gives some good insights.

From our point of view, I'd suggest a strong approach would be:
1) Mostly fresh F&V
2) Dried stores such as grain, flour & legumes
3) Preserved items using traditional methods (fermented vegetable & meats, dried items, sugar & salt preserves, confit items, etc)
4) Alcohol - which often served as a method of preserving calories throughout history as well as providing other "benefits".

But that's a topic for another thread.