Pumpkin pie has become a Thanksgiving cliche: sweet and earthy with perhaps a hint of cinnamon but nary a hint of surprise. It's all the same brown pie. Soggy slices, brightened only by their occasional bonnets of canned whipped cream, are available at old folks homes and in the back corner pastry cases of depressing diners. The only thing worse than ingesting a slice is the regret that will grow on you like mold if you pass through a holiday season with no pumpkin pie at all. You will feel cheated, sad, out of sorts.

But pumpkin pies, like the glorious gourds themselves, can be orange. You will need to start with a pumpkin, not a can.

Canned pumpkin offers you reliable texture, flavor and results, but also produces the reliably grim color of oxidized vegetable matter: brown. Fresh pumpkin, by contrast, offers you the challenge of buying, transporting, slicing, cleaning and baking the big guy yourself, for which you get a fresh, pleasingly pale orange puree and nimble nutrients untouched by preservatives.

It's worth it. If you don't have a copy of "The Joy of Cooking" handy to explain the simple techniques used in hollowing and baking a pumpkin, you might as well grab one of those, too. But here's all you really need to know:

1. Slice the pumpkin in half across the middle.
2. Scrape out the seeds and stringy pulp.
3. Turn each side face down (shell up) on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes.
4. Once cool enough to handle, scoop the baked pumpkin flesh into a food processor and puree. Drain the puree some, and it's ready to use.

You'll get a good deal on a pumpkin after Halloween has passed, and it doesn't even have to be symmetrical or pretty. Just orange.

Pumpkins are native to southern Mexico near Guatemala and are one of the many members of the squash family cultivated by the Mesoamerican cultures of southern Mexico and Central America.  (Those cultures gave us many culinary treasures: maize, peppers, beans, vanilla and chocolate, among them.) Pumpkins were versatile -- they were baked as vegetables, and their seeds were often used to make sweet or savory pastes.

When you take the challenge of updating the American pumpkin pie, you return the pumpkin to its original status as a vital harvest crop of the Americas. Pair it with some of its other native companions: nutmeg, vanilla and cinnamon -- all of which were in full flower of cultivation when the Spanish conquistadores arrived in the New World in the early 1500s.

Here are two different paths to capture the flavor and emotional holiday spark of pumpkin without falling into a humdrum trap:

HAZELNUT PUMPKIN TART

This dessert combines the classic flavors and textures of pumpkin pie (pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg in a creamy custard) and enhances them with crunchy hazelnuts, hazelnut liqueur and extra sugar.  Makes one 9-inch tart (with extra tart dough that can be baked as cookies).

Hazelnut Tart Dough:

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until the dough holds together -- just a few times. Remove the dough from the food processor bowl and knead a little until smooth. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes until ready to use. When chilled, roll the dough out on a flat surface to a ¼-inch thickness. Transfer the dough from the work surface to a tart pan and press it against the edges. Trim overhang. Cover the tart pan with plastic wrap and chill about 15 minutes while you make the filling.

Pumpkin Filling:

Assembly:

Preheat oven to 350 F. If you like a crisp crust, "blind bake" this tart shell with pie weights or by placing beans on parchment paper for about 15 minutes before you add the filling. If you like a crust the blends into the moist filling, just add the pumpkin filling directly into the prepared tart pan over the hazelnut tart dough. Bake about 25 to 30 minutes until edges of tart are golden brown and the center is firm.

NEW WORLD PUMPKIN SPICE CAKE

This moist cake combines the fruits, nuts and spices from the New World. Brown sugar and ginger arrived long after the Spaniards, but by and large this cake pays homage to the riches of the jungles and river valleys of Mesoamerica. Add more spices like chile and ground pumpkin seeds to make the cake extra spicy.  Makes one (9-inch) Bundt cake.

Cake:

2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 scant teaspoon grated fresh ginger
4 large eggs
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1½ cups cooked pumpkin puree or one (15-ounce) can
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dark rum
½ cup cocoa nibs
1 cup pecans, broken into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Generously grease a standard Bundt cake pan with oil or butter, then dust flour on the greased inside of the pan. (Fluted Bundt pans, especially, need a lot of grease for the cake to release.)

To make the cake, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and brown sugar with a whisk until light and fluffy. Add the vegetable oil and pumpkin puree and stir until smooth. Add half of the flour mixture and mix until it is absorbed. Then add the rest of the flour mixture followed by the vanilla, rum, cocoa nibs and pecans. Switch to a rubber spatula to stir the mixture until smooth.

Use the rubber spatula to scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick or bamboo skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs, not batter. Allow the cake to cool in the pan to room temperature before inverting in onto a wire rack.

Glaze:

8 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon kosher salt

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