Does a single ingredient make a recipe a recipe?

I plead yes - and hereby deliver an attempt at proof.

The salt lemon is the center of attention.

Preserved in brine or in salt and lemon juice, these yellow flavor bombs come from the Middle East.

They are milder and less pungent than their fresh siblings, but pack an incredibly complex aroma.

I can unreservedly recommend them with dishes from the Levantine cuisine: with aubergine stews, with yoghurt sauces with garlic or finely chopped in a crunchy tomato and cucumber salad.

But they can also convince again and again in other culinary contexts.

For example as an accompaniment to pasta in a pesto.

The combination is deliciously fresh, so it's perfect for spring and summer and is as quick as cooking pasta: In a tall container, puree the salted lemon with a handful of parsley, fresh black pepper, a generous drizzle of olive oil and a clove of garlic.

This is an excellent opportunity to cook sustainably: you can use both the stalks of parsley, which are full of flavor, and the whole lemon – with seeds, zest and all.

Put in the salted lemon yourself

To serve the freshly cooked pasta, put a large dollop of pesto on top and sprinkle with toasted almonds, fresh tomatoes or a little more olive oil and hand-chopped salted lemon.

Add freshly ground black pepper.

I also sometimes mix in some carrot or zucchini mandolin.

The taste of this dish is all about lemon anyway.

Their saltiness, the freshness of the parsley and the slight spiciness of the garlic form a good aromatic trio.

A lightly fried fish fillet also goes very well with it.

Now you have a craving for salted lemons but have no idea where to get them?

Well, either you pickle them yourself: Cut six organic lemons crosswise at the base of the stem, press in coarse salt, stack in a sterilized jar and after a week squeeze firmly before adding rosemary, some chili and freshly squeezed lemon juice from six more lemons and the jar, the contents of which are coated with a film of olive oil, screwed tightly and left to rest in a cool place for four weeks.

A rather lengthy but really rewarding process, but one that will delay pesto enjoyment by at least five weeks.

Alternatively, buy ready-made salted lemons in an Arab supermarket.

But make sure that there are no additives or even vinegar added, this is detrimental to the fresh taste.

You can also find the yellow fruits on the Internet and in delicatessens – or in the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt.

In addition to fine Middle Eastern dishes and reinterpretations of Jewish classics, the “Flow Deli” museum café there also offers homemade salted lemons to take away.