“Burro e salvia” (butter and sage) is a common pasta dressing in Italy. And it’s incredibly good. But then again, the butter comes after the pasta is boiled for the reason I mentioned. If you are using butter, try adding it to the pasta when you serve it (obviously, still hot), you’ll see the flavor is much better than when you add it to the water (and you need to use less butter with the pasta because it won’t remain in the water).