The week warms up. So does the menu.

The week begins quietly. Monday morning in Belval arrives cool and overcast, the sky a soft pewter grey, the kind of light that makes a warm room feel like a gift. By Wednesday the clouds begin to part. By Thursday the sun is properly out and the temperature climbs to something that finally feels like spring. It is that particular kind of April week that earns its ending.

The menu at MyCaffé this week earns its ending too.

It opens with a Risotto (Carnaroli) that is, on paper, a surprising combination and, on the plate, an entirely logical one. Porchetta, those slow-roasted pork rolls seasoned with wild fennel, rosemary and garlic, is one of central Italy’s great street foods, as much a part of the Roman countryside as the hills themselves. Paired here with the gentle sweetness of pear and the savoury depth of Pecorino cream, the risotto becomes something layered and unexpected: rich but lifted, hearty but bright. Carnaroli rice, as always, holds everything together with the patient grace of a grain that knows what it is doing.

Then come the Eliche, those short, spiral pasta whose name means “propellers” in Italian, a small piece of culinary poetry that tells you something about the Italian relationship between language and food. Here they arrive filled with Capocollo, the cured neck and shoulder of the pig, one of southern Italy’s most prized salumi, alongside Cacio Cavallo, a stretched-curd cheese whose name translates literally as “horse cheese”, though the cheese has nothing to do with horses and everything to do with the way it was traditionally hung to age in pairs, like saddlebags over a beam. Together they rest on a silky turnip cream with confit cherry tomatoes, whose slow-cooked sweetness cuts through the richness of the filling with precision and warmth.

The Fusilli offer a gentler moment. Champignons, earthy and softly fragrant, meet a cream of cabbage with pine nuts, a dish that is quiet and confident in equal measure. Pine nuts have been used in Italian cooking since Roman times, appearing in both savoury and sweet preparations throughout the peninsula, and here they add a toasted warmth that rounds the whole bowl beautifully. A dish for a cloudy Tuesday, or a Wednesday when the light is just beginning to return.

And finally the Tagliolini, which bring the sea to a week that has been largely rooted in the land. Chickpea cream and octopus is a pairing with deep roots in the coastal cooking of southern Italy, particularly in Puglia and Campania, where the two ingredients have coexisted on the table for centuries. The chickpea, creamy and grounding, and the octopus, firm and faintly oceanic, create something that is both rustic and refined. A bowl that tastes like a port town on a Thursday afternoon when the sun has finally arrived.

Start any morning this week with a cappuccino at the bar, the steam rising, the room still quiet. A warm croissant, a focaccia, a panzerotto: the small rituals that make MyCaffé the Italian pause Belval did not know it needed.

And while you are here for lunch, remember that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings until 19:00, Alessandro is waiting with the salumi board, the tarallini and a carefully chosen glass. The Italian way to end the day.

Vieni prima che finisca la settimana. 🍷