Noodles & Company Basil Pesto Cream Sauce
This pesto cream sauce is high in histamine, mainly from the aged parmesan.
Food here is usually assembled to order from components that were prepped earlier in the day, so it tends to be fresher than a drive-through and less fresh than cooking at home. Histamine builds up as protein foods sit, so how long the chicken or beef has been in the warmer matters as much as what is in the bowl. Treat the rating above as a starting point.
It is a cream sauce with basil, canola oil, parmesan cheese, salt, and garlic.
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Parmesan drives it — parmesan is an aged, hard cheese, and aging is what lets histamine build up, so it pushes the whole sauce high.
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The fresh cream is milder — the cream and basil on their own are gentler, but the sauce is only as low as its highest ingredient, and that is the parmesan.
For a lower-histamine option, choose a dish dressed simply in butter or plain oil instead.
This rating comes from Noodles & Company's own published ingredient statement, read on August 23, 2026. Restaurant recipes vary by location and change over time, so always check the current listing: source 1, source 2. How we rate foods →
Noodles & Company Basil Pesto Cream Sauce and Noodles & Company are trademarks of their respective owners. This page is an independent histamine reference and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the brand.
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For educational purposes only. Not medical advice. Consult a healthcare professional for personal guidance.
References
- SIGHI Food Compatibility List — SIGHI (2026)
- Histamine and histamine intolerance — Maintz & Novak (2007)
- Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art — Comas-Basté et al. (2020)
- Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? — Sánchez-Pérez et al. (2021)
- Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond — Jochum (2024)
- Guideline on management of suspected adverse reactions to ingested histamine — Reese et al. (2021)