Pasta cook picked up an award (8)

I believe the answer is:

rigatoni

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'pasta' is the definition.
(rigatoni is a kind of pasta)

'cook picked up an award' is the wordplay.
'cook' becomes 'rig' (I've seen this in other clues).
'picked up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'an' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral for one).
'award' becomes 'nota' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'i'+'nota'='inota'
'inota' back-to-front is 'atoni'.
'rig'+'atoni'='RIGATONI'

Can you help me to learn more?

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

I've seen this clue in The Times and The Sunday Times.

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