How much water do you need to boil pasta?

Adding olive oil to pasta water will not keep it from sticking together.

The key is the amount of water that you use. As a rule of thumb use 4 quarts for the first half pound and another quart for the second half pound. I don’t cook much more than a pound at time since that’s eight servings. I use at minimum 3 quarts of water for even a single two ounce serving of pasta.

It is critical to have your sauce ready and sauce the pasta the minute that it is finished draining.