The dishes of Massese cuisine are children of the town’s folk and peasant tradition, and its flavors are influenced by the aromatic herbs characteristic of the area.
Certainly one of the most characteristic dishes are the “tordelli,” a festive dish, rich and tasty, they are ravioli filled with pork (it is easy to find those who also add cheek), beef, veal, mortadella with the addition of breadcrumbs, milk, eggs and parmesan and pecorino cheese, aromatic herbs such as thyme, sage and rosemary are then added; the pastry, flour water and salt, must be strictly homemade and flattened quite high, in the jargon it is said that the dough must feel, traditionally a glass was used as a mold. They are topped with a rich meat sauce and sausage.
Among the various versions of this dish, the one from Mirteto, a hamlet of Massa, at the center of a dedicated festival, is famous in the area.
It was not uncommon that after preparing the quantity of tordelli needed for the feast lunch, both pasta and filling were left over, and thus stordellate lasagna was born. The pasta is rolled out, always high, and cut into wide strips, and the tordelli filling is used as a lasagna sauce along with tomato puree. This dish, in high demand in the city, less labor intensive than tordelli, testifies to that popular ingenuity for which nothing could go to waste.
Tripe is a typical dish somewhat throughout Tuscany, a poor meat dish par excellence, but in the Massese version it is not difficult to find it enriches the flavor by adding lard.
The tripe, is boiled and once cold should be cut into strips and sautéed in a sauce made from chopped herbs browned in butter with oregano, rosemary and sage and sometimes a slice of lemon, with the addition of tomato puree, all blended with a couple of glasses of red wine. This is the simplest version of the recipe, but it is not uncommon to encounter ones in which in the seasoning, sausage, the city’s prince sausage, is also used. The cooking is long and over low heat, and produces a hearty dish with a strong flavor to be accompanied strictly with red wine.
Among the typical Massa dishes most closely linked to the peasant tradition, it is worth mentioning zuppa d’erbi, a classic soup, but prepared with so-called vine grasses, wild but edible herbs that the experienced eye can recognize along the hillside paths. The origin is thus poor, because the expense of preparing it was that of a walk, and the composition can change depending on the season. A slice of toasted bread rubbed with garlic adds flavor.
Another dish renowned in the city is sausages with rapini. The best rapini for this recipe are those grown Bergiola Maggiore, a mountain village on the side of Mount Brugiana, and it is one of those dishes in which the taste is inversely proportional to its simplicity, and the preparation is very quick: the rapini are browned in a pan with oil, garlic and chili pepper, and separately the sausages are cooked and then the cooking is finished by mixing everything together.
To close, mention must be made of rice cake, a typical dessert traditionally made at Easter and linked to the festivals of the patron saints of the various localities and hamlets that is now commonly found in typical trattorias and restaurants. The basic ingredients are few: rice, eggs, sugar, milk, a pinch of salt and liqueur, but the ratio between these, the type of liqueur to be used (Alchermes, Sassolino, Strega…), the presence or absence of lemon zest and, above all, the ratio between the cream and the rice (which in some areas is little more than a thin layer while in others is more full-bodied) creates village disputes, since each hamlet has its own version of the recipe. The special feature of the Massese rice cake, compared to the one made in Carrara, is a mint candy placed at the bottom of the pan.