Last course of Italian meal is left unfinished (4)
I believe the answer is:
past
'last' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'course of italian meal is left unfinished' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'course' could be 's' and 's' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'pat' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for past that I've seen before include "tense" , "historical times" , "A person's earlier life history" , "over and done with" , "Gone by in time" .)