The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 2 plus 5 letter word EVERY SO OFTEN
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
E
V
E
R
Y
S
O
O
F
T
E
N
More clues leading to the result EVERY SO OFTEN
- European, extremely old, stopping to become less hard occasionally
- Occasionally hiding ring in each cushion
- Occasionally, Oscar’s opening pianissimo, in English and in French
- Now and then, during poetic evening, gets extremely mushy about love
- Forty-one? Eve’s knackered from time to time
- Always having yen to appease, entertaining Oscar occasionally
- Occasionally England’s extremely moderate about open western border
- English opera at first opens pianissimo, crescendoing in the middle occasionally
- At times
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "from time to time" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case from time to time = every so often.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.