Six Dishes That Make July Worth Sitting Down For — MyCaffé Menu, 13–18 July

Six Dishes That Make July Worth Sitting Down For.

Menu of the Week, 13–18 July 2026

There are weeks when the menu does the talking and the weather simply provides the backdrop. This is one of them. Outside, Belval opens the week at 33°C, eases through a cooler mid-week around 25°C, and returns to clear summer sunshine by Friday and Saturday. Inside, six dishes that cover more ground — geographically, technically and emotionally — than any menu this season.

The Caramelle Farcite con Orata su Crema di Carciofi, Pomodorino Giallo e Mandorle are the dish that earns the longest pause. Caramelle — the name means sweets, or candies in Italian — are pasta shaped and twisted at both ends like a wrapped sweet, one of the most playful and charming forms in the Italian repertoire. Here they are filled with sea bream, known in Italian as orata, one of the most prized fish of the Mediterranean for its delicate, sweet white flesh. The filling rests on an artichoke cream: artichokes, one of Italy’s most ancient vegetables, cultivated since Roman times and celebrated across the country from the Roman carciofo alla giudia to the Venetian artichoke hearts sold raw in markets, cooked slowly into a cream that is earthy, slightly bitter and deeply savoury. The yellow cherry tomatoes bring brightness and acidity, and the almonds bring the final note — a toasted, slightly sweet crunch that ties the whole bowl together. A dish of exceptional elegance, built from ingredients that know each other well.

The Rigatoni Carbonara all’Italiana arrive this week as a direct declaration. Carbonara is Rome’s most fiercely debated dish and its most beloved. No cream. No onion. No substitutes. The sauce is built from eggs, Pecorino Romano, guanciale and black pepper, combined off the heat with the pasta water in a technique that requires both patience and confidence. The result, when done with honesty and skill, is one of the most satisfying things Italian cooking has ever produced: a silk that coats every ridge of the rigatoni and fills every hollow with something deeply, unambiguously Roman. Rigatoni, with their wide tubes and ridged exterior, are an inspired choice for a sauce this generous. This is carbonara as it should be, and at MyCaffé it is made with the same care and the same refusal of shortcuts that the dish demands.

The Risotto con Pere, Formaggio di Chèvre e Miele is the bravest dish on the menu this week, and one of the most rewarding. Pears in a risotto, with goat cheese and honey: a combination that sounds like a cheese board reimagined as a first course, and that is precisely its genius. Pears, at their best in July when the summer varieties are ripe and fragrant, bring a juicy, floral sweetness to the rice. Goat cheese — chèvre — brings tang, creaminess and a slightly sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the risotto and lifts every spoonful. And honey, that most ancient of sweeteners, present in Italian cooking since before recorded history, adds a warm, golden depth that binds all three elements together. A risotto that is at once unexpected and completely inevitable.

The Orecchiette con Salsiccia, Noci e Pecorino close the pasta selection with something deeply rooted in the Italian south. Orecchiette and sausage is Puglia’s most iconic combination, and adding walnuts and Pecorino to that foundation is a decision that belongs to the mountain kitchens of the same region, where nuts have been used in pasta sauces since the Middle Ages. Walnuts bring a slight bitterness and a rich, oily texture that works with the sausage rather than against it, and the Pecorino alongside — sharp, granular, aged — pulls everything into balance with the certainty of a flavour that has been doing this job for centuries.

The Puccia Polipo returns for its third consecutive week, which says everything that needs to be said about how it has been received. The soft Salento bread filled with grilled octopus tentacles, turnip tops, stracciatella and cherry tomatoes has become, in a matter of weeks, one of the dishes most associated with MyCaffé’s summer identity. If it is on the menu, it is worth ordering.

The Tagliata di Filetto di Pollo con Pomodori Secchi, Insalata di Spinaci e Salsa Yogurt Fatto in Casa closes the week with the clean, reliable elegance it has brought every week this season. Halal chicken fillet, sliced across the grain, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh spinach and a homemade yoghurt sauce. A plate of honest pleasures, exactly right.

Come any morning from 06:30 for your cappuccino before the day begins. The terrace is there when the sky is and the bar is always ready when it is not. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings until 19:00, Alessandro will be at the bar with MyAperitivo: a salumi board, tarallini and a glass chosen for a July evening that still has warmth in it.

Sei piatti. Una settimana. Nessuna scusa per non venire. ☀️