This is a very short modification to the portlet_recent.pt template in order to limit the number of displayed entries from 5 to 3.
The original template:
...<br></br><tal:recentlist tal:define="view context/@@recent_view;<br></br> results view/results;"><br></br><dl class="portlet" id="portlet-recent"><br></br><br></br> <dt class="portletHeader"><br></br> <span class="portletTopLeft"></span><br></br> <a href="http://www.len.ro/work/cms/limit-recent-portlet-entries" <br></br> tal:attributes="href string:${portal_url}/recently_modified"<br></br> i18n:translate="box_recent_changes">Recent Changes</a><br></br> <span class="portletTopRight"></span><br></br> </dt><br></br> <tal:items tal:repeat="obj results"><br></br> <dd class="portletItem"<br></br>...<br></br>
The modified template:
...<br></br><tal:recentlist tal:define="view context/@@recent_view;<br></br> results view/results;<br></br> subresults python:results[:3]"><br></br><dl class="portlet" id="portlet-recent"><br></br><br></br> <dt class="portletHeader"><br></br> <span class="portletTopLeft"></span><br></br> <a href="http://www.len.ro/work/cms/limit-recent-portlet-entries" <br></br> tal:attributes="href string:${portal_url}/recently_modified"<br></br> i18n:translate="box_recent_changes">Recent Changes</a><br></br> <span class="portletTopRight"></span><br></br> </dt><br></br> <tal:items tal:repeat="obj subresults"><br></br> <dd class="portletItem"<br></br>...<br></br>
Notice the definition of the subresults = results[:3].