American state engaged in providing backing for Italian food (7)
I believe the answer is:
fusilli
'italian food' is the definition.
(I know that pasta are Italian)
'american state engaged in providing backing' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'american' could be 'us' (United States) and 'us' is present in the answer.
'state' could be 'ill' (ill is a kind of state) and 'ill' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fusilli that I've seen before include "Spiral pasta shape" , "Type of pasta" , "Spiral pieces of pasta" , "2 [PASTA]" .)