Retiring commie director, heading off to get pasta (10)
I believe the answer is:
tortellini
'pasta' is the definition.
(I know that Tortellini is a type of pasta)
'retiring commie director heading off' is the wordplay.
'retiring' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'commie' becomes 'trot' (short for Trotskyite).
'director' becomes 'fellini' (Italian film director Federico Fellini).
'heading off' means to remove the first letter.
'trot' reversed gives 'tort'.
'fellini' with its first letter taken off is 'ellini'.
'tort'+'ellini'='TORTELLINI'
'to get' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for tortellini that I've seen before include "Italian dish" , "pasta dish" , "Pasta is called for" , "Rings for food" , "Small filled pasta cases" .)