1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Peel onion and potatoes and coarsely grate with a box grater over a clean kitchen towel. (Here, I used 3 small potatoes as one large potato.)

3. Over the sink or a bowl, squeeze the towel of grated mixture as hard as you can to extract as much liquid as possible.

4. Add 2 ½ Tbsp. oil to a deep pie plate. Put the plate in the oven to heat.

5. Add onion and potato mixture to a bowl. Sprinkle with starch, salt and ½ tsp. pepper.

6. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and crack one egg into it. Beat the egg with a fork and mix well.

7. Remove the pie plate from the oven, scooping out ½ Tbsp. hot oil. Set aside.

8. With a fork, add the potato mixture to the pie plate. Build up the sides of the pie plate to form a crust. (If you like lots of crunchy potato, make your sides wide.) Drizzle remaining hot oil on top.

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until edges begin to brown.

10. Mix pumpkin purée with evaporated milk. Add remaining eggs, cinnamon and sugar.

11. With a measuring cup or ladle, pour pumpkin mixture into potato pie until it reaches the top of the potato edges. (Any extra mixture can be used to make sweet pumpkin flan!)

12. Add remaining ½ tsp. pepper and additional spice, if using, to pumpkin mixture, stirring lightly with a fork to prevent overflow.

13. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. If the edges begin to get too dark, cover with foil; the moisture from the pumpkin should help it stay crisp.

14. To make sweet pumpkin flan, add 3 Tbsp. sugar to leftover pumpkin mixture. Pour into oven-safe ramekins and bake for 30 minutes.

15. After removing kugel from oven, let cool slightly and serve with sour cream.