Four days. Make them count.

This week arrives like a gift wrapped in sunshine. Monday morning in Belval opens at nearly 20°C, and the forecast holds all the way through Thursday: clear skies, warm air, the kind of light that makes everything look a little more generous than usual. Spring has properly arrived and this week feels like its best argument yet.

It is also a short one. MyCaffé will be closed on Friday 1 May for Labour Day and on Saturday 2 May, offering the team a well-earned long weekend. Four days, then. Four days to sit down, slow down and eat something worth remembering.

The week opens with something unexpected and entirely delightful: a Lasagna Vegetariana, described simply as the Chef’s Fantasy. Lasagna, that most layered of Italian dishes, has roots stretching back to ancient Rome, where flat sheets of pasta were already being prepared and celebrated. In its modern form it is a dish of patience and generosity, each layer built with care, the whole greater than the sum of its parts. This version is vegetarian, which in the right hands is not a limitation but a liberation. What goes into a chef’s fantasy this week is a question best answered by sitting down and ordering it.

Next come the Eliche, those spiral propeller-shaped pasta, here filled with prawns and zucchini flowers, resting on a potato cream with a cherry tomato coulis. Zucchini flowers, the bright yellow blossoms of the courgette plant, are one of the great delicacies of Italian summer cooking, appearing in Roman markets from spring onwards and traditionally stuffed, battered and fried. Here they meet the sweetness of prawns in a combination that is at once elegant and deeply seasonal. The potato cream grounds everything with a gentle richness, and the cherry tomato coulis brings brightness and acidity. A dish that tastes like the season itself.

The Maccheroni alla Diavola speak a different language entirely. Alla diavola, to the devil, is one of Italian cooking’s most honest expressions: a preparation built on heat, on chilli, on the pleasure of something that makes itself known immediately and generously. Maccheroni, those short tubular pasta whose name some etymologists trace back to the Sicilian word for a type of forceful kneading, are perfectly suited to carry a bold, spiced sauce into every hollow and ridge. This is the dish for those who like their spring with a little fire in it.

And finally the Orecchiette con Filetto di Manzo, which bring the week to a quietly luxurious close. Orecchiette, those small ear-shaped pasta from Puglia, are traditionally paired with vegetables and sausage in their home region, but here they meet beef tenderloin, one of the most prized cuts of the animal, tender and refined. It is a pairing that honours both tradition and ambition, the rustic pasta elevated by the elegance of the meat.

Come any morning this week for your cappuccino before the day begins. The focaccia is warm, the bar is ready, and the light through the windows is exactly right. And if the weather holds as forecast, the terrace is calling.

MyCaffé will be closed on Friday 1 May and Saturday 2 May. We will see you again on Monday 4 May, rested and ready.

Buona settimana, e buon lungo weekend. 🌿