How to show 5 recent posts on home page?

Hi,

On my home page I want to list the 5 most recent posts. I’ve searched and got various threads that are too old or don’t give any straight answer. I tried the codex but it’s sporadically up and down and so I can’t seem to search there.

All I want is the title and the excerpt from the last 5 posts. Tried the template tags page while codex was up and didn’t find anything that worked.

Thanks

Tom