Italian side dish provoking conversation? (11)

I believe the answer is:

intercourse

'conversation?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'italian side dish' is the wordplay.
'italian side' becomes 'inter' (Inter Milan football team).
'dish' becomes 'course'.
'inter'+'course'='INTERCOURSE'

'provoking' acts as a link.

(Another definition for intercourse that I've seen is " Dealings between people".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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