This Is the ‘Trendy’ Italian Meat With 1,000 Years of Staying Power

La Mortazza is a kind of folded over pizza sandwich, with mortadella, an Italian meat, on the menu at Mother Wolf in Los Angeles. Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times/TNS

By Stephanie Breijo From Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles—Rounds of sliced-thin, pink, white-speckled mortadella are popping up on sandwiches, on charcuterie plates and even in the occasional cocktail in Los Angeles, but it’s hard to view any food item depicted in ancient Roman carvings as a flash in the pan. The Italian deli meat that traces its roots to Bologna and as far back as the Etruscans isn’t new, but of late it’s been gaining the kind of star power that salami and prosciutto have hogged for too long.