It’s rare that I ever get around to posting follow-ups. I’ve been the lucky recipient of additional stories and recipes in response to past posts — I even have a plan to scrapbook them. But I’m always in the thick of a backlog of new posts and new stories.
Charlotte Truesdell’s Ricotta Cheesecake will be a first, then.
I wrote about the Truesdells in 2019. It was one of those times where I randomly chose a recipe from a community cookbook only to find a goldmine of information about the person who contributed it. In the years since the post, I’ve walked past the “Il Palazzetto” house many times, thinking of its history.
The Truesdells in their home in Guilford, which they called “Il Palazzetto”
In March of 2020, a woman named Matilde Morara reached out to me. A resident of Bologna, Matilde was a friend of the Truesdells, who she met while they were all living in New York in 1971. Matilde lived in Baltimore for a year in 1980, spending time with the Truesdells in their famously splendid home, enjoying music and good food. She told me that Charlotte was an excellent cook of Bolognese food, Matilde’s native cuisine.
My recipe explorations have exposed me to a fair amount of lifestyles of the wealthy, but this week’s family really takes the cake.
Charlotte and Clifford Truesdell were known for dressing formally for dinner – Clifford in “lace collars and cuffs” and Charlotte in evening gowns, according to the Baltimore Sun Magazine in 1978.
Clifford swore that they were not putting on airs but were “attempting to uphold the dignity of man.” The Truesdells preferred formality in their lives. “It imposes order,” Sun writer Frederic Kelly paraphrased.
The couple’s Guilford home, which they called “Il Palazzetto,” was filled with walnut paneling, gold gilding, and fine art (including many nudes of Mrs. Truesdell).
Outside of the German peach cake, or the Indian chutney that made its way into Mrs. B.C. Howard’s recipe collection, non-English and African influences aren’t always obvious in the recipes I work from. A lot of cooking traditions were passed down orally in immigrant communities, or else handwritten recipe manuscripts of everyday citizens didn’t make their way into historical society collections and the like. The remaining option is to reference “old world” sources and attempt to fill in the gaps.
That’s why I was grateful to find “Italian American Favorite Recipes” in a thrift store – even if it was printed in 1982. This Baltimore community cookbook benefitted the “American Committee on Italian Migration,” or ACIM, an organization created in “response to the immigration crisis resulting from the social and economic chaos occurring in Italy after two world wars.” [1] Lobbying by ACIM facilitated “The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965” which abolished a quota system of immigrants by nation of origin. One book calls the act “The Law that Changed the Face of America.”[2]
Although Italian Immigration to Baltimore dates back to the mid-1800’s, ACIM found that many newcomers in the 1960s still needed assistance with relocation to the United States. A 2015 Baltimore Sun article on ACIM (now American Citizens for Italian Matters) describes some of the organizations more recent efforts such as the restoration of Italian works of art, university endowments, and contributions to women’s center My Sister’s Place.
The ACIM cookbook was compiled in 1982 by member Margaret Rose Mastellone. Margaret was an ideal force behind such a cookbook; she and her husband Andrea owned and operated the Mastellone Deli and Wine Shop on Harford Road.
The Mastellone’s were venerated authorities on Italian food, frequently quoted in the Baltimore Sun on topics from olive oil (1984) to tiramisu (1989).
“I love being with people. I’ve been raised in this business. And it’s not just people of Italian extraction, all kinds of people come [to Mastellone Deli and Wine Shop] to shop. We share in what they do, no matter what their background may be. Thank God for the people who are interested in our type of food. We want to share with them. We have something that’s special.” – Margaret Rose Mastellone, “Preserving a way of life by cooking Italian style”, Baltimore Sun 1982
Andrea passed away in 2010, and Margaret two years later. Andrea’s renowned taste and knowledge of wine was celebrated, and it was said that “Customers who venerated Italian cooking quickly made [their] store into something of a gastronomic shrine.”
Ever since I made shad roe ravioli in the spring, I caught a fancy for homemade pasta. After months of pining I got a pasta roller to call my own. I brought home some clams from Chincoteague – my favorite – and turned to the ACIM cookbook for ideas.
Lo and behold, this recipe for white clam sauce was contributed to the book by the Mastellone’s son Salvatore; “White Clam Sauce alla Salvatore Mastellone.”
It turned out amazing and I’ve been rolling out fresh pasta on the regular ever since.
In a 1982 article about the cookbook, Margaret Rose Mastellone specified that clam sauce should be served with linguini. Presumably, she passed that preference onto her son. However, my pasta cutter only does spaghetti or fettuccine so I chose the latter, rather than buy dried pasta. I like to think that the Mastellones would understand.
Recipe:
24 cherrystone clams
.25 Cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
.5 Cup chopped italian parsley
.125 Lb butter
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 Lb linguine or fettuccine
Clean clams and steam until open. Drain and mince clams; set aside. Brown garlic in oil; remove from oil and mash. Mix clams, parsley, butter, a pinch of pepper flakes, and mashed garlic. Boil pasta al dente. Add clam sauce and serve. “Have with a nice Italian white wine, chilled. Bon Appetito.”
Recipe adapted from “Italian American Favorite Recipes”
[1] The Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia edited by Salvatore J. LaGumina, Frank J. Cavaioli, Salvatore Primeggia, Joseph A. Varacalli
[2] The Law that Changed the Face of America: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 By Margaret Sands Orchowski
