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Start-up without a prayer, mostly producing kind of ice cream (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

neapolitan

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'kind of ice cream' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'start-up without a prayer mostly' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'producing' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for neapolitan that I've seen before include "21 [ITALIAN]" , "Three-coloured ice cream" , "One coming from Campania" , "Italian citizen" , "Italian native" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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