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Italian dish? Heather has one in college (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

linguini

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'italian dish?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both things that one consumes for nourishment as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?

'heather has one in college' is the wordplay.
'heather' becomes 'ling' (synonyms).
'has' says to put letters next to each other.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'college' becomes 'uni' (short for university).
'i' placed within 'uni' is 'uini'.
'ling'+'uini'='LINGUINI'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for linguini that I've seen before include "dish in Milan?" , "Long thin pasta" , "Ribbonlike pasta" , "Italian course" , "Flat, thin pasta" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
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