Dad abandons Spanish dish for this woman (4)
I believe the answer is:
ella
'this woman' is the definition.
'dad abandons spanish dish' is the wordplay.
'dad' becomes 'pa' ('pa' can be a synonym of 'dad').
'abandons' suggests deleting specific letters.
'spanish dish' becomes 'paella' (I've seen this before).
'paella' with 'pa' taken away is 'ELLA'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for ella that I've seen before include "Woman" , "Diminutive of Eleanor" , "Miss" , "Ms Fitzgerald" , "- Wheeler Wilcox, US poet" .)