Don't put olive oil in your pasta water

Don’t do it.

Oil floats on top of the water. Your pasta is submerged. They barely interact. The oil isn’t preventing sticking—sticking happens after draining, when starches glue noodles together. A splash of oil in boiling water is just expensive water displacement.

Worse: that oil coats your pasta, which then prevents sauce from clinging. You’re actively sabotaging the dish.

If you’re worried about noodles sticking after draining, toss them with a little sauce immediately. Or, if you must, add a tiny bit of oil after draining and only if you’re not saucing right away. But in the water? Total waste.

Save your olive oil for something that actually benefits from it.