Old man's first to try a dish from Italy (5)
I believe the answer is:
pasta
'dish from italy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'old man's first to try a' is the wordplay.
'old man's' becomes 'pa's' (both can mean someone's father).
'first to' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'try' is 't'.
'pas'+'t'+'a'='PASTA'
(Other definitions for pasta that I've seen before include "Dish of dough made with durum wheat" , "dish of food" , "Course of Italian" , "Eg, lasagne" , "Spaghetti, ziti, fusilli, for example" .)