When in Rome, my husband and I discovered that many restaurants abide by a centuries old tradition of preparing a different canonical dish (one of the piatti canonici) every day of the week.

Mondays are for riso e indivia in brodo (rice and endive in broth). Tuesdays are for pasta e fagioli (pasta with beans), pasta e ceci (pasta and chickpeas), fish, or oxtail stew. Wednesdays are wide open. Thursdays are for gnocchi di patate (potato gnocchi). Fridays are for paste e ceci, pasta e broccoli, or a fish dish. Saturdays are for trippa alla romana (tripe with pecorino). Sundays are for fettuccine alla romana (pasta with tomato sauce and meat) and abbacchio (roast lamb).

This tradition reminded me of a post I read a few months ago on A Cup of Jo about a family who decided to bring a similar approach to their weekly dinner table. It started with Pizza Fridays and expanded to Taco Thursdays and Sushi Sundays until their entire week was filled up with special daily dishes.

The benefit of such an approach was that family members no longer scratched their heads each night when it came to deciding what was for dinner. Instead, they looked forward to dinner each night, because they knew just what to expect – they found comfort in the routine. Like Steve Jobs’ uniform, the tradition also streamlined shopping and eliminated another decision from their day. And, I imagine the structure may have also promoted creativity (e.g. knowing you make soup on Sundays may free you up each week to be adventurous about which soup you will make).

I am curious to try this out, but am not sure which dishes I would pick for each day.

How about you? Did you have weekly dinner traditions in your family growing up? Do you now? What did you or would you choose to prepare each day?

Hope you have a great weekend!