Another vote for “I don’t, and why would you?”. Boiling over isn’t a problem if you use a large pot and fill it only about half full, which is a lot of water in the pot that I use for pasta. I do add a bit of salt, though, as it raises the boiling temperature of the water.
I don’t usually have a problem with sticking, unless there’s a lot of leftover spaghetti that I’m putting away after dinner. In that case I just mix it with leftover sauce and that loosens it up.
Adding salt does not appreciably raise the boiling point - certainly not enough to affect the cooking time. It takes 58 grams of salt in 1 liter of water to raise the boiling point by half a degree C. That’s about 10 teaspoons of salt.
The reason to add salt to the water is to season the pasta, not to move the boiling point.
Re: Salt and boiling temps,
Interesting point, thanks, ignorance fought! I was under the impression a relatively small amount of salt would significantly raise the boiling point.
There seem to be diverse opinions on the “seasoning the pasta” argument. The small amount of salt that I use – and that is often recommended – makes hardly any difference. I’ve sometimes absent-mindedly forgotten whether I salted the pasta water and tasted it, and it’s only been very mildly salty. Others suggest using more, a few going so far as the “salty as sea water” approach, and others still, say to avoid iodized table salt but use generous amounts of kosher salt. Sounds like some cautious experimentation may be in order here!
Don’t feel too bad. I always thought the salt was to make the temperature of the water more uniform. Reading the sources given here, that’s not the case.
Okay, this is something new (to me) under the sun. Do you find this to be better than the traditional methods? In what way?
It’s faster, uses less energy, and provides concentrated starchy cooking water to finish sauces with. I’m about to jump into my car, but you or someone else can Google and post a link to the method detailed.
My wife insists we use oil to prevent it from boiling over. I don’t use it, though I’ve never seen any difference in how the sauce sticks to it.
I don’t add salt to pasta water. Tastes just fine.
Wow, this urban myth is just all over the place. I was taught that salting the water makes it boil faster. Lol
Not surprisingly, Kenji has covered it in detail:
Seems to work quite well with notable exception for long strand pastas.
Would someone please explain this. When does overboiling occur and how is a bit of oil supposed to prevent it? Are people leaving the lid on the pot at full boil?
I’ve never used oil in the water and I’ve never had the pot boil over.
It becomes “frothy” in rapidly boiling water. The frothy part is what boils over. The oil sits on top of the water preventing the froth from forming.
You probably don’t have this issue because you don’t boil your pasta on high. Or you use a big pot.
Dissolved starch in the water links up and allows bubbles to form. Oil coats the starch molecules and stops them from linking up .
I thought it was because if you use the pasta water to thicken your sauce (I use pasta water when I make alfredo sauce, for instance) it enhances the taste, though honestly, I don’t add (olive) oil to the water myself, I generally cook the chicken in it, take the chicken out and then make the sauce in the pan with the olive oil in it already. But that’s why I thought you would do it.
I used to do it for overboil, then I discovered that pasta doesn’t truly need to be cooked at a boil. A good strong simmer will do it. If the water is 190F-ish instead of 212F, it all works about out the same.
In fact (and Kenji also wrote a note about this)m you can even bring the pot to boil, dump in the pasta, then turn off the heat and cover the pot. Let it sit the normal amount of time. Works great.
Or you could just turn the heat down a bit.
This is my preferred strategy, along with moving the pot to another burner (I have an electric stove). Lot more ditz-proof than the conventional method. 
I salt the water, no oil.
But if I’m making pasta salad, I drain the noodles, return to the pot, add a few Tb of oil to keep it from clumping. Then add: bell pepper, mushroom, pepperoni, olives, parm, red onion, etc. and stir well.
What what what? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of there being any culinary difference between table salt and kosher salt after both are dissolved in water. How is the effect of using kosher salt supposed to be different?
But I’m just a philistine who has never added salt or oil to pasta water, so what do I know?
I think your regular table salt has iodine added, whereas kosher salt doesn’t. If I oversalt something with the usual Morton’s, it’s harsh. Kosher salt is much more forgiving. @Chefguy may add illumination.