Osteria Ruggera, Modena, Italy

Wednesday afternoon this week, we needed to eat out. We visited a restaurant which my colleagues came upon by chance some days earlier - Osteria Ruggera. See, this is what I love about Modena - all you need to do is wander around and you'll find somewhere good pretty soon. In fact, I can safely say I never had a bad meal in Modena.


Osteria Ruggera is a tiny little place with lots of Sinatra pics and other photos inside - nice and small- so we parked all 6 of us on the outside - which was a little covered deck on the sidewalk. And why wouldn't we? It was a beautiful October afternoon - warm and quiet.



Our host was a wonderful lady who spoke no English, but thankfully we had our Italian speaking American with us who done a great of of filling our empty plates with roughly what we wanted.

Note here: we got no menu - out host was able to recite all to us by heart. Note 2: by heart there were no prices given either....

Antipasta was, per usual, a load of cold cuts of delicious hams, salamis and cheeses. Next up, and this was new to me, was cold vegetables, some pickled, some in oil. Aubergine, or as is called here, eggplant, both in olive oil and with tomato paste and Parmiagiano Reggiano, also, courgette strips in basil spiced oil, and, to spice things up, some stuffer chile peppers. All, of course, with bread. Fantistico!

And then onto the Pasta. I had Spaghetti Buffolo - which I now believe means spicy - fine by me. It was some kinda meat on, well, spaghetti, with a mildly spicy tomato sauce and fresh basil. The kinda spicy that creeps up on ya.

All was washed down with a couple of bottles of Sangiovese. Well, we were in Northern Italy. When in Rome... but we were in Modena.

In conclusion, the meal was great - best lunch in a long time. The price was apparently a bit on the high side - I didn't pick it up - but for a 2 hour lunch which comprised of excellent food and wine, we were all complaint-free. Recommended.

Across from where we sat was a wig shop. See below.