Does adding olive oil in pasta while boiling make it sticky?

drywall_dan

I am planning to make a pasta dish and would like to know if adding 1Tb spoon of olive oil while boiling 500 gram of pasta make it sticky. What are the other advantages and disadvantages of this approach?

Originally asked by Preeti Mansabdar on Stack Exchange (cooking) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

Some people think adding olive oil to pasta water will keep the pasta from sticking, but in reality it does absolutely nothing. Adding a tablespoon of oil to pasta water won't affect the outcome in the slightest, doing that is a waste of a good ingredient. Adding olive oil to pasta after it has been drained on the other hand will keep the pasta from sticking. It will also make it oily, which may not be what you want.

Full answer by GdD: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/74487 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Need it done for your business? UphillTech.