The Last Days of July, the First Days of August

The Last Days of July, the First Days of August.

Menu of the Week, 27 July to 1 August 2026

This week does something calendars rarely allow. It carries one month into the next while barely pausing for breath. Monday opens under a scorching 36°C sun, the kind of heat that makes shade feel like a small mercy, and by Saturday the temperature has settled into a far gentler 22°C. July burns itself out and August arrives quietly, almost apologetically, somewhere around Thursday.

Six dishes carry the week across that threshold.

The Orecchiette con Straccetti di Manzo (Halal) al Pepe Verde open with warmth and substance. Straccetti, thin strips of beef cooked quickly to stay tender, meet green pepper, that milder, more aromatic cousin of dried black pepper, in a preparation that owes something to the French tradition of steak au poivre while remaining entirely at home in an Italian kitchen. Orecchiette, those small ear-shaped pasta from Puglia, hold the sauce close in their characteristic cupped shape.

The Tagliatelle con Pesce Spada, Profumato al Limone bring the coast to the table. Tagliatelle, those wide ribboned egg pasta from the Emilia-Romagna tradition, carry swordfish, fished in Italian waters for centuries, alongside the citrus lift of lemon. A dish that is light, precise and entirely suited to a week moving from heat toward something cooler.

The Risotto con Carciofi e Calamari con Salsa alla Curcuma continues a pairing that has already proven itself this season. Artichokes and squid is one of the great combinations of Mediterranean coastal cooking, the slightly bitter, earthy vegetable meeting the clean brine of the squid. The turmeric sauce, not a traditional Italian ingredient but one that has found genuine favour in modern Italian kitchens, gilds the rice and adds a warm, faintly peppery depth that neither the artichoke nor the squid could offer alone.

The Ovali Farciti con Bufala su Crema di Melanzane, Mandorle e Pomodorino Giallo are this week’s most elegant dish. Ovali, named simply for their oval shape, are a form of stuffed pasta less commonly seen than ravioli or tortellini but built on the same principle: a delicate pasta shell holding something worth protecting. Here that filling is buffalo mozzarella, the soft, milky cheese of Campania, made from the milk of water buffalo raised in the marshy plains around Caserta and Salerno. Resting on an aubergine cream, its natural sweetness deepened by slow cooking, and finished with almonds for a toasted crunch and yellow cherry tomatoes for brightness, this is a dish built entirely around contrast and balance.

The Puccia Polipo returns once again, by now a fixture rather than a guest. The soft Salento bread filled with grilled octopus tentacles, turnip tops, stracciatella and cherry tomatoes has, over the course of this summer, become one of the dishes most closely associated with MyCaffé. If you have somehow not tried it yet, this remains the invitation.

And the Tagliata di Filetto di Pollo con Pomodori Secchi, Insalata di Spinaci e Salsa Yogurt Fatto in Casa closes the week with the same reliable elegance it has brought all season. Halal chicken fillet, sliced across the grain, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh spinach and a homemade yoghurt sauce that ties it all into something light and bright.

Come any morning this week from 06:30 for your cappuccino before the day’s heat, whichever direction it happens to be heading. 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 whatever the sky is doing that particular evening.

Wherever July ends and August begins this week, the table is the same as it always is.

Un mese finisce, un altro comincia, il pranzo resta lo stesso. ☀️