ByKen Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
The official local breakfast's got to have eggs, toast and
Portuguese sausage. Now, that sausage is made with turkey.
At right is a dish of Fiesta Rice with Portuguese sausage.

Enter: Kama'aina 100 percent turkey Portuguese sausage. It's the one sure thing that's been missing from isle grocery shelves for years. Spadaro's Sausage Co. unveils the new product this month at Brent's Restaurant & Delicatessen in Kailua, Fujioka Super Market in Haleiwa, and Mocha Java Cafe at Ward Centre.

A two-ounce serving of Kama'aina turkey Portuguese sausage (one-fourth of an eight-ounce link) has about 7 grams of total fat and 2 grams of saturated fat. Compare those figures with regular Portuguese sausage's approximate 15 grams of total fat and 6 grams of saturated fat. Both sausages contain about 40 milligrams of cholesterol.

"I love it," Mocha Java Cafe chef Ka'eo Yuen said of the Kama'aina product. "It's one of the best sausages, regardless of its ingredients."

This week Mocha Java offers three specials served with Kama'aina turkey Portuguese sausage - Brooke's Omelette, a three-cheese three egger with mushrooms and red bell pepper, served with broiled sausage slices; Chef Yuen's Fiesta Rice - a medley of brown rice, black beans, colorful bell pepper and sauteed diced sausage; and pasta with Chef Yuen's Cashew Garlic Cream Sauce topped with sausage slices.

ByKen Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Tony Spadaro with his turkey Portuguese sausage.

A taste testing at Mocha Java produced thumbs-up from the eatery's regulars. "I liked it - the flavor, the texture," said photographer Jim Buckley, of Jim Buckley Productions in Kaimuki. "Sausage is one thing which I don't eat a lot of, because I don't eat red meat or pork products. But I would eat this because I do eat turkey."

Jocelyn Abanes of Makiki added, "It tastes good." She said it doesn't taste as fatty as regular Portuguese sausage.

Honolulu Police Department detective-sergeant Alex Garcia called the sausage "special ... spicy. It's delicious and I think it would be good for pupu and beer. I just gave up red meat, too, for 1997. That's my resolution, so this is good timing."

Spadaro is no stranger to sausage. The Spadaro sausage saga start with Tony's great-grandfather, Antonio Spadaro, a sausage maker in Partinico, Sicily.

Tony's grandfather, Samuel Spadaro, at age 94 a part-time resident of Sicily and New York, continued the sausage heritage. Tony's father, Antonino Spadaro, operated Spadaro's butcher shop and Spadaro's sausage shop in Jamestown, N.Y.

"We've been sausage makers all our lives," Tony Spadaro said. "Our focus is quality and freshness."

However, Spadaro detoured for some 15 years as a heavy-diesel equipment mechanic. As a child in his native New York, "When I would get done with school, I would go work with my father. I was tired of making sausage."

He's lived some 20 years in Hawaii, all the while holding sausage-making parties and crafting sausages for friends. "People said, 'What are you doing fixing my boat today? You gotta make sausage.' "

Two years ago he made the leap of faith, starting a sausage company and introducing fresh sausage based on a secret family recipe and his lifelong experience. Today, his signature Sicilian Style Sausage is a standard on the menus of Cafe Sistina, Matteo's Italian Restaurant, Sarento's Top of the I - The Italian Restaurant, and the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

But, satisfied diners and purveyors besieged his voice mail with requests for a Portuguese sausage. Spadaro wouldn't stop with a Portuguese link; he wanted to devise a healthful product.

ByGeorge F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Chef Steve Uehara serves up Chicken Sausage
with Pasta and Pesto at Scoozee's.

The turkey Portuguese sausage is Spadaro's lone reduced-fat link, but , Spadaro this month officially unveils six other sausages - chicken apple sausage, chicken habanero sausage, lamb sausage, veal and herb sausage, Kama'aina chicken and pork Portuguese sausage, and Gordon Biersch Euro Maerzen Beer Sausage.

Most sausages are available at Haleiwa's Fujioka Super Market and Moiliili's Taniguchi Store. R. Field Wine Company at Ward Centre sells the Sicilian Style Sausage for $7.99 a pound.

Scoozee's restaurant in Ward Centre features the chicken apple sausage on its menu. The Gordon Biersch Euro Maerzen Beer Sausage is available only on the menu at Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant and, on a retail basis, at Fujioka Super Market.

Prepare the Kama'aina Turkey Portuguese Sausage by broiling, grilling, steaming, poaching, or sauteing in a frying pan lightly coated with vegetable oil cooking spray. Call Spadaro at 395-4039 to arrange Portuguese sausage fund-raising, or call retailers at least three days in advance for Super Bowl orders of five pounds or more of fresh or Kama'aina links.

For Super Bowl grazing, Spadaro suggests peperonata - an Italian mixture of peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic cooked in olive oil - and charcoal grilled sausages, on Saint-Germaine Bakery's 6-inch mini French rolls.

"Our motto is try 'A Taste of Old,' " Spadaro said of his seven kinds of sausages. "We're adapting things, but the art is from years and years ago. I kind of see the 'peasant' coming back - food that is simple, straightforward."

Recipes follow using Spadaro's sausages, which can be mixed and matched according to one's taste.

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 teaspoons minced garlic (about 4 large cloves)
2 large onions, chopped (2 cups)
2 fresh hot chile peppers (red or green), halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced crosswise
6 sweet red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch strips
3 tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

To serve, heap mixture onto fresh bread rolls with charcoal grilled Spadaro's Sicilian Style Sausage. Or, spoon over pasta.

ByKen Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
A dish of Fiesta Rice with Portuguese sausage.

2 cups uncooked brown rice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup cooked black beans
4 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock
1/4 cup chopped green onion
3/4 cup diced red bell pepper
4 ounces Kama'aina turkey Portuguese sausage, cubed
Pinch cumin and paprika

When rice is done, saute with onion, bell pepper and sausage in a frying pan lightly coated with vegetable-oil cooking spray. Makes 4 Mocha Java servings; 6 entree (10-ounce) servings; or 10 side-dish (6-ounce) servings.

2 pounds uncooked penne pasta
Oil to taste, about 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste, about 1/2 teaspoon
8 links (4 ounces each) Spa-daro's chicken apple sausage
For garnish: grated Romano cheese, fresh basil, fresh parsley

Pesto:

2/3 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup macadamia nut pieces
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon orange juice concentrate
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon baker's salt (fine; can substitute table salt)
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

For pesto: Coarsely process all pesto ingredients, except oil, in a food processor. Continue processing and add oil in a steady stream until mixture is smooth.

To serve, toss pasta and pesto, and serve with sausage. Garnish with Romano cheese, basil and parsley. Makes 4 Scoozee's servings, or 8 suggested 5-ounce servings pasta with 1 sausage each.

1/2 pound Spadaro's chicken habanero sausage, casings removed
2 cups finely chopped head cabbage
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion
1 teaspoon Chinese brown-bean paste or bean sauce, optional
2 dozen won-ton wrappers
Peanut oil for frying

Heat oil in a wok or nonstick skillet. Pan-fry pot stickers until golden brown, about 5 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other side. Drain pot stickers on a paper towel. Makes 24 pieces.