Food & Drink: Rally Pizza rallying for local farmers

The roasted vegetable plate featured Romano beans, carrots, new potatoes, shishito peppers and cauliflower with roasted eggplant sauce, basil pesto and roasted shallots.

The salad burst with summer favorites like cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans in a creamy basil dressing.

The bright pink Current Affairs cocktail had a Wobbly Cart red currant syrup swirled into gin, Lillet Blanc, lemon and Herbsaint rinse.

Amber Baker of Red Truck Farm in Ridgefield is looking forward to her farm’s menu takeover this weekend. Baker loves to geek out on food and enjoys working closely with local chefs, especially Alan Maniscalco.

“It’s cool to work with Alan because he knows how farms work,” Baker said.

For the takeover, Baker expects to provide heirloom tomatoes and pea shoots. This summer’s erratic temperatures and precipitation have made the growing season a bit unpredictable. Typically the end of August is the start of fall vegetables at Red Truck like carrots, beets, fennel, basil, and new potatoes.

For Red Truck’s takeover, Maniscalco developed a Southern-inspired menu.

You can expect specials like Gravenstein apple cocktails and a salad with Red Truck mixed greens, heirloom tomatoes, bread-and-butter pickled beets, carrots and fennel drizzled with a vegan ranch dressing.

The roasted vegetable plate will be piled with carrots, potatoes, beets and sweet onions with a vegan creamy cashew-pea shoot sauce, sweet and sour collard greens, and a scallion chile salsa.

Roasted torpedo onions, heirloom tomato sauce and Ash Tree Farms mushrooms will top the special pizza. (A vegan option will be available.)

Maniscalco said that dessert will feature, “some fried apple goodness, maybe a fritter, but at least a fried pie.”

Small but mighty Flat Tack Farm, just 1 acre, will handle the final takeover of the season on Sept. 28 and 29.

Farmer Kelly Peters expects tomatoes, tomatillos, basil and a variety of potatoes to make an appearance. She’s hoping her gooseberries will be ready for desserts and cocktails.

As part of the takeover, the farmers providing the produce will be dining at Rally Pizza. Patrons can meet the featured farmers and find out more about their work.

Amber Baker looks forward to feasting on Red Truck’s vegetables at Rally during their takeover. She describes eating her produce after it has been transformed by Maniscalco as a magical experience.

“We’re all trying to do the same thing,” she said. “Give people good food.”

Rachel Pinsky can be emailed at couveeats@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram @couveeats and @rachelapinsky and on Facebook @couveeats.