Crossword Genius

EU capital into cooking Italian food (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rigatoni

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'italian food' is the definition.
(type of pasta)

'eu capital into cooking' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'capital' could be 'riga' (capital of Latvia) and 'riga' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'into' is 'toni' which is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rigatoni that I've seen before include "Short, ribbed, tubular pasta" , "Form of pasta" , "Foodstuff" , "Short fluted tubes of pasta" , "Pasta dish" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
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