A Mission to Convert

I have had a breakthrough in my mission to convert the world to an appreciation of white asparagus. I had, by chance, a quantity of it imported from France. As I mused over its destiny, I happened on a two-for-one offer on sliced speck in my local supermarket. I reasoned that whereas I had some old friends coming for lunch, it was highly informal with a few kids running around and I didn’t want to offer a formal starter as such. I thought of grissini wrapped in Parma ham and in a flash the idea came to me – hardly original, I don’t suppose – of baking the asparagus in the speck and serving them as an amuse-bouche while we chatted and drank before lunch.