French leader eats a starter from Italy -- maybe this? (8)
I believe the answer is:
macaroni
'this?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'french leader eats a starter from italy' is the wordplay.
'french leader eats' becomes 'macaron' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a starter from' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'italy' is 'i'.
'macaron'+'i'='MACARONI'
'maybe' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for macaroni that I've seen before include "Alternative to 31 [TORTELLINI]" , "Omani car (anag)" , "Form of pasta" , "being a feather in Yankee's cap?" , "Old dandy" .)