Salting pasta water barely changes boiling point. Why still do it?

Answer: Season noodles inside

Boil much hotter — Common myth, but the boiling-point change is tiny at cooking concentrations. That is not enough to explain better pasta. The more useful lesson is scale: a chemistry fact can be true and still too small to matter much at dinner.

Season noodles inside ✓ — Right. Salt goes in because pasta absorbs water as it cooks, so the noodle itself gets seasoned before sauce arrives. Britannica says salt primarily seasons pasta directly, while the boiling-point change is minimal. The timing matters because the seasoning happens while water is moving into the pasta.

Stop starch swelling — No. Salt at normal pasta-water levels does not freeze starch swelling in place. Starch still hydrates and gelatinizes; that is how pasta cooks. The useful control knob for texture is timing, stirring, and stopping near al dente, not trying to chemically lock starch with salt.