News

CASA LUCA

Byjapaneese perspective September 29, 2022March 19, 2016

Milano Tonkotsu Ramen

On May 29th, an Italian ramen restaurant, CASA ramen, opened as CASA LUCA at a location in the Ramen Museum in Shinyokohama.

It will be there only for a limited period of time of a year and a half. CASA LUCA’s broth is made from pig bones, and takes approximately 20 hours to create.

Grilled vegetables marinated with olive oil are later added to it. The soup tastes mild and creamy and is not salty at all. The noodles are made from a flour called Durum Semorena, which is normally used for pasta and other kinds of flour in Italian breads.

The noodles taste different from those used in typical Japanese ramen, but are different in a good way, and taste delicious.

CASA Ramen opened in Milan in September of 2013. The owner, Luca Catalfamo, was born in Milan and became intrigued with ramen after encountering it at Ippudo in New York while studying cooking around the world. Ippudo is a chain of ramen restaurants which is headquartered in Hakata city, Fukuoka prefecture in Japan.

Luca Catalfamo eventually learned how to make traditional Japanese broth, dashi at an udon restaurant in London. Later, he lived in Japan for a month and consumed three cups of ramen per day until finally discovering his ideal image of ramen that led to the opening of CASA Ramen in Milan. Soon after opening, CASA Ramen became very popular even without advertisements, and there are often long lines just get a table.