Big gun welcomes the Spanish student with starter of Italian pasta (10)
I believe the answer is:
cannelloni
'pasta' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'big gun welcomes the spanish student with starter of italian' is the wordplay.
'big gun' becomes 'cannon' (I've seen this before).
'welcomes' indicates putting letters inside (in sense of 'invites in').
'the spanish student' becomes 'ell' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'starter of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'italian' is 'i'.
'cannon' placed around 'ell' is 'cannellon'.
'cannellon'+'i'='CANNELLONI'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cannelloni that I've seen before include "course" , "Italian food" , "Stuffed pasta rolls" .)