The term you're looking for is heat capacity. Water has a much higher specific heat capacity (on a per unit of mass basis) than most other everyday materials, a

The term you're looking for is heat capacity. Water has a much higher specific heat capacity (on a per unit of mass basis) than most other everyday materials, and it comprises most of the mass of a pot+water [+pasta] system being heated, so the time and energy required to boil won't be changed significantly by the presence or absence of the pasta.