Against terrible crime with the Spanish returning the Italian pasta? (10)
I believe the answer is:
vermicelli
'pasta?' is the definition.
(vermicelli is a kind of pasta)
'against terrible crime with the spanish returning the italian' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'against' could be 'v' (abbreviation for 'versus') and 'v' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'crime' is 'ermic' which is present in the answer.
'italian' could be 'i' (abbreviation for Italian) and 'i' is found in the answer.
'the spanish' could be 'el' ('the' in Spanish) and 'el' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'l' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vermicelli that I've seen before include "shreds of chocolate" , "Pasta in thin strands" , "Chocolate or pasta" , "Worm-like pasta" , "Worm pasta" .)