Italian place selling starter of ramen? Surely not! (7)
I believe the answer is:
salerno
'italian place' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'selling starter of ramen? surely not' is the wordplay.
'selling' becomes 'sale' (sale is a kind of selling).
'starter of' suggests taking the first letters.
'surely not' becomes 'no' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The first letter of 'ramen' is 'r'.
'sale'+'r'+'no'='SALERNO'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for salerno that I've seen before include "Orleans (anag) - Italian port" , "City of Campania" , "Campanian port" , "European city!" , "Battle" .)