Low FODMAP Roasted Pumpkin Baked Pasta with Sage is hearty, yet a bit elegant. Low FODMAP gluten-free pasta combined with roasted kabocha squash (also called pumpkin), red bell peppers and kale with Low FODMAP Garlic-Infused Oil along with marinara, fresh mozzarella and sage. Comfort food, easy to make, and will please FODMAPers and non, alike. Reheats well, too.
Dairy & The Low FODMAP Diet
Part of what makes baked pastas so crave-able is the dairy component. Think of classic lasagna: ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan. We have several lasagna recipes for you, including Skillet Lasagna, Four Cheese & Chicken Lasagna, a White Summer Vegetable Lasagna and a Hearty Classic Lasagna and you will notice a few things:
- The low FODMAP diet is not a dairy-free diet.
- Many cheeses in particular serving sizes are low enough in lactose to be considered lactose-free and low FODMAP.
- Lactose-free cottage cheese is a fantastic substitute for conventional ricotta.
- We have a homemade lactose-free ricotta, if you like.
This recipe for Low FODMAP Roasted Pumpkin Baked Pasta uses both purchased lactose-free cottage cheese as well as fresh mozzarella.
Any fresh mozzarella will work for this recipe, but to get the look of the images it is best to start with large balls as opposed to small.
Our article Is Cheese Low FODMAP? will help you understand how to tell if any cheese is low FODMAP or not and in what amounts. Required reading, in our opinion.
No FODMAP Foods
Whenever I am creating a low FODMAP recipe, especially when there are rich components (like dairy) or ones that have small low FODMAP serving sizes, I always look to no FODMAP foods to see if I can incorporate them in any way.
In this recipe, the kabocha and the red bell pepper contains no FODMAPs. The kale is very low FODMAP and has generous low FODMAP serving sizes.
Check out our article on No FODMAP Foods and our post Explore An Ingredient: Kale.
This recipe begins with roasting the kabocha and red bell peppers in a hot oven and the kale is simply blanched in the pasta water along with the noodles.
Choosing Low FODMAP Pasta
You might find recipes that say they are low FODMAP that call for gluten-free pasta – but not all gluten-free pasta is low FODMAP.
Actually, it is true that conventional wheat pasta has a low FODMAP serving size. According to lab testing by Monash University, wheat pasta is low FODMAP in servings of ½ cup cooked or 74 g. That is not a bad serving.
That said, we like to work with certain low FODMAP gluten-free pasta, so that our pasta and noodle dishes will accommodate more people.
Not all LOFO GF pastas are the same, from a flavor standpoint and from a textural one – not by a long shot.
I am a huge fan of pastas made with rice, as opposed to blends. You can find low FODMAP pastas made with quinoa, corn, even chickpeas (yes, there is a low FODMAP serving size) but I come back again and again to rice-based pastas, particularly those made by Jovial.
Asian Noodles & European Pasta
We are not going to talk about Asian-style noodles here. And in fact, we have a fabulous article for you, Asian Noodles & FODMAPs, that covers that topic very well.
Here we are talking about European and Italian style pasta and I have strong opinions.
FODMAP Everyday® is a global resource, I realize that, but our Test Kitchen is in the U.S. and so I use what is available to us.
After years of trying many different kinds of rice-based pasta, meaning that the ingredient lists are the same, it has become very clear that they are not all the same.
I like Jovial pasta for its taste and particularly for its texture. It is never mushy and is hands-down the closest to conventional pasta of those I have tried. I understand that you might not have access to it, but the point is that low FODMAP gluten-free pastas will vary. Try a few brands available to you and sample to figure out which works best for you.
Jovial Pasta Is Fantastic
For this recipe I like the Jovial penne the best, the caserecce are good, and the fusilli can work, too.
Ingredients for Low FODMAP Roasted Pumpkin Baked Pasta
We are lucky enough to live near very well-stocked supermarkets. You might want to make sure that yours has lactose-free cottage cheese, for instance, before deciding to make this recipe. There are several brands on the market and it is getting easier to find.
For the pasta, I do like the Jovial for how it retains texture through the boiling and then the baking.
Please note that we use fresh mozzarella for this recipe. It makes a difference!
For the kale, we prefer the Lacinato, but you can use curly.
As far as the tomato sauce, I happen to LOVE the Rao’s Sensitive Marinara, but you can use our Quick Tomato Sauce.
The rest of the ingredients are fairly self-evident. You have your batch of Low FODMAP Garlic-Infused Oil made, don’t you?
How To Make Low FODMAP Roasted Pumpkin Baked Pasta with Sage
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Coat the inside of a 13-inch by 9-inch (33 cm by 23 cm) oblong ceramic pan with nonstick spray; set aside.
We know the recipe begins with cleaned and stemmed kale leaves, but we thought we would show you how we do it. First we remove the kale ribs.
Then we chop the kale and set it aside.
Toss squash cubes and red bell pepper with 1 tablespoon of the oil, spread out in prepared pan, season with salt and pepper.
Roast for 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven, add the chopped scallions and another 1 tablespoon of oil, tossing everything together, and roast 15 minutes more until all the squash is tender.
Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta for 6 minutes. Add the chopped kale and continue to boil until pasta is quite al dente.
Drain.
Add back to the cooking pot (so you don’t have to dirty any other dishes).
Tear the mozzarella by hand.
Add the roasted vegetables, marinara, cottage cheese, about half of the mozzarella and also 4 of the sage leaves, torn.
Fold everything together very well; season with salt and pepper, as desired.
Scrape the pasta into your oblong pan in an even layer. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Take last 1 tablespoon of oil and moisten the remaining whole sage leaves and place them here and there.
Bake until top is golden and the cheese melts, about 20 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately with a green salad and light vinaigrette. Reheats well, too – even in the microwave.
Low FODMAP Roasted Pumpkin Baked Pasta
Low FODMAP Roasted Pumpkin Baked Pasta with Sage is hearty, yet a bit elegant. Low FODMAP gluten-free pasta combined with roasted kabocha squash (also called pumpkin), red peppers and kale with Low FODMAP Garlic-Infused Oil along with marinara, fresh mozzarella and sage. Comfort food, easy to make, and will please FODMAPers and non, alike. Reheats well, too.
Ingredients:
- 1- pound (455 g) peeled and seeded kabocha squash, cut into bite-sized cubes
- 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
- 3 tablespoons Low FODMAP Garlic-Infused Oil, made with olive oil, or purchased equivalent, divided
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup (32 g) chopped scallions, green parts only
- 12- ounces (340 g) low FODMAP gluten-free penne, caserecce or fusilli
- 4 cups (100 g) stemmed and chopped Lacinato kale
- 1, 24- ounce (680 g) jar Rao’s Sensitive Marinara, or equivalent low FODMAP marinara sauce
- 12- ounces (340 g) lactose-free cottage cheese
- 12- ounces (340 g) fresh mozzarella, preferably large balls
- 12 fresh sage leaves, divided
Preparation:
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Position rack in center of oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Coat the inside of a 13-inch by 9-inch (33 cm by 23 cm) oblong pan with nonstick spray; set aside.
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Toss squash cubes and red bell pepper with 1 tablespoon of the oil, spread out in prepared pan, season with salt and pepper, and roast for 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven, add the chopped scallions and another 1 tablespoon of oil, tossing everything together, and roast 15 minutes more until all the squash is tender.
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Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta for 6 minutes, then add the chopped kale and continue to boil until pasta is quite al dente. Drain. Add back to the cooking pot (so you don’t have to dirty any other dishes). Add the roasted vegetables, marinara, cottage cheese, and about half of the mozzarella, torn by hand and also 4 of the sage leaves, torn. Fold everything together very well; season with salt and pepper, as desired. Scrape the pasta into your oblong pan in an even layer. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Take last 1 tablespoon of oil and moisten the remaining whole sage leaves and place them here and there.
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Bake until top is golden and the cheese melts, about 20 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately with a green salad and light vinaigrette. You can also refrigerate the pasta, unbaked, well covered, for 24 hours before baking. It can also be frozen for 1 month. Defrost in refrigerator overnight, then bake as directed. It might dry out a bit and need more sauce.
Notes:
Tips
FODMAP Information
Our recipes are based on Monash University and FODMAP Friendly science.
- Cheese: Many cheeses have low FODMAP serving sizes. The low FODMAP diet is not a dairy-free diet. Hard cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano have been lab tested by Monash University and are low FODMAP in 40 g amounts.
- Garlic-Infused Oil: Make your own Garlic-Infused Oil or buy a commercial equivalent for the easiest way to add garlic flavor to your food. Fructans in garlic are not oil-soluble, so garlic-infused oil is low FODMAP.
- Kabocha Squash: Also called Japanese Pumpkin and Kent Pumpkin. Both Monash University and FODMAP Friendly have lab tested this vegetable. Monash says Japanese/Kabocha pumpkin is low FODMAP at 2/3 cup (75 g) but that is just the recommended serving size. The small print tells us that no FODMAPs were detected in their lab testing. Kent pumpkin gets a “Pass” at ½ cup (75 g) from FODMAP Friendly.
- Kale: Both Monash University and FODMAP Friendly have lab tested kale. Monash pictures Lacinato type kale and says that kale is Green light and low FODMAP in servings of ½ cup, chopped (75 g). FODMAP Friendly depicts curly kale and gives it a “Pass” at ½ cup chopped (30 g).
- Red Bell Peppers: Red bell peppers have been lab tested by Monash University and have shown no detectable FODMAPs. FODMAP Friendly has lab tested red bell peppers and states that 1 small pepper at 75 g is low FODMAP.
- Scallions: The green parts of scallions are low FODMAP as determined by Monash University lab testing and can be used to add onion flavor to your low FODMAP cooking.
Please always refer to the Monash University & FODMAP Friendly smartphone apps for the most up-to-date lab tested information. As always, your tolerance is what counts; please eat accordingly. The ultimate goal of the low FODMAP diet is to eat as broadly as possible, without triggering symptoms, for the healthiest microbiome.
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more. For a more detailed explanation, please read our article Understanding The Nutrition Panel Within Our Recipes.
I’m going to attempt this on Friday! Hopefully my Instacart shopper is able to find everything I need (the store might not have fresh sage).
Hi Michelle, part of my reason for making this dish was the looks – and the fresh sage is part of that. But I absolutely think you can have a delicious result with dried. Try 1/2 teaspoon ground sage and add it to the vegetables. 1 teaspoon might be OK depending on how strong you like it.
I think I threw in about a tsp of sage. Maybe it was old and not very strong bc I don’t know if I could taste it. But there are a lot of flavors going on! So I know you say that if you didn’t make the recipe as written, you can’t be accountable for how it turns out 😃. I had to make some modifications but it still tasted good! the store I got my groceries from didn’t have the lactose free cottage cheese, so I left it out. Didn’t miss it. I threw in some shredded parm. I forgot how long it takes to cut up a whole squash! I don’t know if I liked the texture and taste of the kabocha. Maybe I should have roasted it longer or cut the pieces smaller. I have enough leftover to make this recipe again (although I don’t know how long cut squash will last in the fridge and we’ll be eating leftovers of tonight’s bake for a few days). Maybe someday I’ll try it with butternut squash, which I can get already chopped at my grocery store. I also threw in a little chicken. My husband approved so it will be added to my recipe rotation!
Michelle, I love all these changes and additions. Kabocha does have a dry texture that some do not care for; you could try this with butternut squash and adjust for FODMAP load. Love the additional chicken.
I can never find kabocha squash so I used a pound of frozen chopped butternut squash. I also used shredded mozzarella instead. This was delicious!! I froze what we couldn’t eat and I look forward to eating it again. The Rao Sensitive pasta sauce is the best low-FODMAP pasta sauce I’ve found.
Hi Julie, that sounds tasty! Hope it all worked out well. Just bear in mind that whenever you make changes to a low FODMAP recipe that you are on your own re-calculating the FODMAP load. Hopefully you tolerated your dish well, so this might be after-the-fact info, but bear in mind that the butternut squash has a higher FODMAP load than kabocha, which contains No FODMAPs. I also love the RAO’s!
I am lucky to live in an area where I can find fairly easily ingredients such as fresh sage, kabocha squash, lactose-free cottage cheese and gluten-free pasta. It is the pre-made speciality ingredients such as low FODMAP marinara sauce that are hard to find in stores around me. I would not have made this recipe had it not been for the fact that the list of ingredients also featured a link to a low FODMAP tomato sauce recipe. Thank you for thinking of everything.
So I made this dish for dinner two days ago, and not only did I find it absolutely delicious, but the next morning I woke up symptom-free and feeling great. It was also a big hit with my partner, who is a vegetarian with a life-long addiction to cheese. 😉
By the way, I learned lately that Monash had retested red bell peppers. Apparently, they contain a significant amount of fructose.
Hi Magalie! Thank you for writing and letting us know you loved this dish – and that it please your partner, too. Here’s the deal with the peppers…the peppers tested recently by Monash contained fructose. The ones tested before did not. Both results are real and true and factual. The peppers you bought and ate? Who knows! We are addressing this in depth in a series of upcoming articles. Stay tuned.
Hi Dédé! I am really looking forward to reading those articles. Ever since I have learned that new tests reveal a fruit or a vegetable’s FODMAP content may vary not only in quantity, but also in type, I have been feeling somewhat overwhelmed and frustrated, as these new findings are forcing me to rethink my diet yet again and to not take anything for granted. These finding also raise at least two big questions in my mind. First, how can you, as a low-FODMAP recipe developer, work with that variability and also account for it in your publications? And second, how can we, as IBS sufferers, avoid FODMAP-stacking when composing a meal if, unbeknownst to us, we are at risk of serving a side dish or a dessert that contains an ingredient that may tip the scales? Help!
Magalie, all we can do is reference the available science at the time of testing a recipe or publishing a post. We make it very clear that nothing is guaranteed. Even before the recent Monash update if one were to take the time to compare the earlier Monash tests with FODMAP Friendly data, there are many times that low FODMAP amounts serving sizes varied, as well as the actual FODMAPs themselves. The main reason for the four interlinked articles that are coming out is that I think both Monash University and FODMAP Friendly have not done a good enough job explaining the variability the data (FF has been better at it). I know this is an imperfect answer but all any of us can do is stay up-to-date on the science, try foods and assess our reactions. After all, even if there were a particular serving size of a food featuring a particular FODMAP and let’s say it never ever changed or was variable in any way, it still is not guaranteed that you would not react to it. So, all of this and us are works in progress.
Thank you, Dédé! Actually, your answer is perfect!
To get back to my comment about the red peppers, I guess I was expecting to find, placed immediately before or after your recipes, a stronger, more explicit disclaimer regarding the ingredients you describe as low-FODMAP—a disclaimer where you would explain your approach precisely the way you did in your reply, i.e. that any claims you make about the FODMAP content of an ingredient reflect “the available science at the time of testing a recipe or publishing a post,” and that readers should be aware that FODMAP contents may vary over times and between individual fruits or vegetables of the same variety. I did not get a sense of that when I read this particular recipe, hence my reaction.
That being said, I really, really look forward to reading your series about variations in FODMAP contents.
This is an older recipe. On this recipe we have three statements: “Our recipes are based on Monash University and FODMAP Friendly science” and also “Please always refer to the Monash University & FODMAP Friendly smartphone apps for the most up-to-date lab tested information. As always, your tolerance is what counts; please eat accordingly. The ultimate goal of the low FODMAP diet is to eat as broadly as possible, without triggering symptoms, for the healthiest microbiome” and also “Read our article How Are Low FODMAP Recipes Created? for more in-depth information.” In newer recipes it now says, “All recipes are based upon Monash University & FODMAP Friendly science at time of initial publication” in Two locations, as well as “Please always refer to the Monash University & FODMAP Friendly smartphone apps for the most up-to-date lab tested information. Foods will be retested from time to time; in the case of raw ingredients, such as fruits and vegetables, results may vary. All lab tested results are valid and represent a snapshot in time. As always, your tolerance is what counts; please eat accordingly. The ultimate goal of the low FODMAP diet is to eat as broadly as possible, without triggering symptoms, for the healthiest microbiome.” and then the link to the article as well.
Thank you for taking the time to answer. The newer warning is exactly what I was expecting to read. As you said, everything is a work in progress.
We try our best:)
I make this for Thanksgiving every year since I am a vegetarian, gluten free, and low FODMAP. Always comes out good. I just replace the kale with cucumbers, since leafy greens are not on my diet due to thyroid issues and their goitrogens.
Hi there! So happy you enjoyed the dish. Was a little confused about the cucumber comment, but I love them!