Beaten Marciano calls for pasta (8)
I believe the answer is:
macaroni
'pasta' is the definition.
(I know that macaroni is a type of pasta)
'beaten marciano' is the wordplay.
'beaten' is an anagram indicator (letters beaten up or destroyed).
'marciano' with letters rearranged gives 'MACARONI'.
'calls for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for macaroni that I've seen before include "A Minorca kind of pasta" , "sort of pasta" , "being a feather in Yankee's cap?" , "Pasta variety, eighteenth century dandy" , "Hollow pasta" .)