Party with prosciutto this weekend in Los Angeles

At first glance, the news that the prosciutto di Parma folks are going to be in town this weekend could seem like one big yawn. Prosciutto is now so commonplace that we take it for granted. Go into a well-stocked deli and you’ll find not only Parma hams, but also San Daniele, Tuscan and assorted Spanish (oddly, you almost never see anything other than the most commercial brands of American country hams, though).

It seems hard to believe today, when prosciutto di Parma can even be found at grocery stores, but until 1989 it was outlawed in the United States. To get a taste was a very big deal. Friends would smuggle it back from overseas trips, carefully wrapping it in dirty clothes to try to fool the contraband-sniffing dogs. Some of our favorite restaurateurs would arrange to have whole hams shipped in surreptitiously, packed into the middle of a case of wine.

Looked at in that light, this week’s visit -- ostensibly to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the prosciutto di Parma consorzio -- actually serves as a reminder of how much richer our food world is today than it was just 24 years ago, when we actually had to explain just what prosciutto was.

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So, think of that when you’re noshing in Pershing Square downtown at lunch Friday, enjoying the prosciutto snacks being dished out from the Ludo food truck by the Trois Mec trio, Ludo Lefebvre, Vinny Dottolo and Jon Shook (food served 12:30 to 2 p.m.).

Later Friday evening the truck will roll to Bar Covell, where the same dishes will be available paired with wines chosen by Matthew Kaner, one of Food & Wine magazine’s top sommeliers of the year (food served 7 to 8:30 p.m.).

And Saturday there will be an all-afternoon “Parma Party” at Joan’s on Third, featuring various prosciutto-based dishes along with glasses of Prosecco and sparkling Lambrusco.

So go, eat some ham, raise a glass and just be glad 1989 is but a distant memory.

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