Heartless Italian certain to take cover (6)
I believe the answer is:
insure
'cover' is the definition.
(I know that cover can be written as insure)
'heartless italian certain' is the wordplay.
'heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'certain' becomes 'sure' (synonyms).
'italian' with its middle taken out is 'in'.
'in'+'sure'='INSURE'
'to take' is the link.
(Other definitions for insure that I've seen before include "Arrange for payment in the event of loss" , "Take out cover" , "Take out a policy" , "Make certain" , "Protect by taking out a policy" .)