Flashback Friday: Remember Applegate’s Landing? Here are 2 recipes for its gilbertini
Welcome to Flashback Friday, a weekly feature that will appear every Friday on Kansas.com and Dining with Denise. It’s designed to take diners back in time to revisit restaurants they once loved but that now live only in their memories — and in The Eagle’s archives.
This week’s featured restaurant, Applegate’s Landing, opened in Wichita in 1975.
The salad bar was set up in the back of an antique truck.
Diners would clamor for the table set up in an indoor gazebo.
The waitresses wore “granny dresses.”
And everyone salivated over the gilbertini pasta.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Wichita loved to dine at Applegate’s Landing, a restaurant that specialized in pizza, pasta and sub sandwiches. The restaurants — there were eventually four of them in Wichita and 18 more scattered across 11 states — were a Pizza Hut spin-off, and the first one opened in 1975 at 1343 N. Oliver.
applegate's landing 2 12 Jan 1975, Sun The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kansas) Newspapers.com
From the outside, the restaurants looked like colonial houses covered in shake shingles. Inside, they had lots of unique details, including indoor porch swings and a private brick silo where larger groups could gather.
By 1982, though, all of Wichita’s Applegate’s Landing restaurants had closed. But diners never forgot that gilbertini pasta, which was made with sausage, garlic, cream sauce and lots of cheese.
applegate's review 02 Jul 1976, Fri The Wichita Beacon (Wichita, Kansas) Newspapers.com
Over the years, readers were so desperate for another taste, they would often ask food writers at The Wichita Eagle to track down the recipe. Two different but similar recipes for the dish were printed over the years, and you’ll find them both below.
This recipe, originally printed in The Wichita Eagle in 1987, was sent in by Terri MacKay of Douglass.
GILBERTINI
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
Dash ground pepper
1 lb. sausage
8 to 10 oz. assorted pasta (rotini, shells, rigatoni), cooked and drained
6 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Parmesan cheese to taste
Saute garlic in margarine. Add flour to make a paste. Add milk and cook and stir until bubbling and thick. Add salt and pepper. Brown sausage and drain completely.
Add meat to white sauce. Add pasta and stir. Turn into greased 2-quart casserole. Top with shredded cheeses. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake in 375-degree oven 20 minutes or until bubbling. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
In 2002, another Wichita Eagle reader asked for the gilbertini recipe. The paper printed the request and received dozens of responses. It printed the above recipe plus another one, sent in by Lisa K. Studtmann of Dodge City, who said she spent many Sunday evenings as a Bethany College student dining at Applegate’s Landing.
Gilbertini II
1 lb. assorted pasta, cooked al dente, rinsed and drained
MEAT MIXTURE:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. ground round
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
BESCIAMELLA SAUCE:
3 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
TOPPING:
2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Cook pasta to al dente; drain, rinse and set aside.
Heat olive oil and saute onion and garlic over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add sausage, beef and spices and saute until lightly browned, stirring to break up any lumps. Drain excess fat and set aside.
To make sauce: Melt butter over heat in 2- to 3-quart saucepan. Whisk in flour and cook slowly for 2-3 minutes or until flour is lightly browned, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk and cream, stirring with whisk to prevent lumping. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper.
Combine meat mixture, pasta and sauce over low heat. Adjust seasonings to taste. Place in large greased casserole. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through.
