I drop a splash of olive oil into the water as it's boiling.

Do you mean just the pasta, or a pasta dish with sauce? Thanks....

I season the water well before cooking the pasta. Pasta, like rice does not take flavors well after it is cooked. I feel that if i cook pasta, it should be able to "stand alone". in other words, you should be able to take a bowl of the plain pasta, not sauce or anything and eat it, and it should taste good. I put fennel seeds, oregano, salt and garlic in the water, and some olive oil. the flavors cook into the pasta, so you can use a little sauce and it still taste great!

Goor question, really nothing so far, but I am going to do as Olan does...

How about love. Add love to make them unique.

my own piss

I always use genuine premium italian pasta its better for taste and texture,I add only coarse ground black pepper to it.For the sauce I use tomato pulp as it has better texture also basil,chilli,oregano,garlic for strong flavours and roughly chopped onion chunks.

If ur taliking about making ur own pasta such as the dough then there are lots of things to add. The trick is not to add too much liquid into the flour as this affects the end result making it really hard to roll out. I found taht when i wanted sweet pepper pasta i griddled a half of a red pepper was enough to give a little texture but the main flavour i used was paprika which is dried red peppers. Tehre is differnt paprikas such as smoked paprika & i used that too which was fantastic. Also mushroom pasta, cook some mushrooms for a very long time over a low heat, they must be getting kinda dry (not burt) so taht they do not affect the flour but again a tip is I used dried mushrooms & belneded them in my coffee/spice grinder to a fine powder, add that in & it gives a wonderful depth of flavour to ur pasta. Experiment. As for cooking the pasta when u make ur own flavoured pasta you want that to stand out when u cook it so keep it simple, light olive oil sauce, not too stong an oil but one that still lets the flavour out, use smoked sea salt flakes which are avalible in most supermarkets now, fresh herbs & even just spinach with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice & parmesan cheese. If u have a plain pasta like paperdelle, boil in salted water with very little olive oil, in a seperate pan fry with butter some very finely chopped onions, add shredded sage leafs, grated garlic & fry intill onions traslucent, add in some chicken livers, turn the heat up & saute very quickly, once just cooked (should still be slightly rare) add a splash of marsala or madeira & then some double cream, lots of shredded flat leaf parsley then drain the pasta once just cooked & drop in to the pan with the livers etc & toss, serve in a bowl with crust bread..stunning. Once you have the basics u can have so much fun with simple pasta dishes, use ur imagaination & enjoy...