Quanto basta, le ricette di nonna Titina

The brief

This is a worked example. Askmill wrote this prompt from a simulated client interview, in which a model answered the questions for an invented client. The line under the title is the opening request the interview started from; everything else came out of the answers.

The prompt

The complete text, exactly as it is handed to an AI builder.

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A grandmother's kitchen notebook from the Naples coast, read on a phone at the stove and printed as a bound A5 book for twelve cousins. Concept: every recipe has two voices, hers and the scale's. Titina has always cooked by eye, so each ingredient shows her own measure first, in large handwriting ("tanta", "un bel pezzo"), and beside it a small slot for the amount the family weighs later. Iron rule of the data: the page never invents a number, a saying or a fact about her, and never fills a gap with the standard regional recipe. An empty slot is not shown to readers or on paper; a dish with no weights carries the one line "Le dosi le stiamo ancora pesando."

Mood: slow, warm, homemade; Sunday morning in her kitchen, the ragù barely moving since dawn and its smell already on the stairs; the opposite of a glossy food magazine. Light page, which also prints without heavy ink. Palette: oilcloth cream #F6EEDC (page ground), ink brown #2A1A14 (all running text, at least 12:1 on the cream), ragù red #8E1B16 (accent, at least 7:1), basil green #3F6B2A (occasion tags and small details, at least 5:1), spoon wood #A9744A (rules and the bodies of controls, never text), aluminium grey #8C8F8C (the pot, hairlines), print white #FFFDF7 (photo borders). Ragù red is reserved for her handwritten words and for the sauce itself, in the pot and in the splashes; nothing else uses it. Tints at 12%, 25% and 50% over the cream are allowed; no other hues.

Materials and structure: everything is drawn in inline SVG as if with a pen at the kitchen table, with slightly wobbly ink outlines and flat fills, no shading; page edges carry a band of tiny oilcloth flowers. Controls are objects from her kitchen, each with a written label and an accessible name: a wooden spoon ("Scrivi") switches writing on and off, a pot lid ("Tutti i piatti") returns to the list, a round aluminium knob ("Senti nonna") plays her voice. Each dish has a frame like an old print, white-bordered and tilted 2 degrees, holding a pen drawing of the dish until someone adds a real photo. Screens in order: cover, a short page about her, the list, one page per dish, a last page. The list groups six dishes under three occasions: "La domenica" (Ragù della domenica, Genovese, Polpette), "A Natale" (Struffoli, Minestra maritata), "A Pasqua" (Pastiera); the Christmas group is livelier, scattered with drawn sugar sprinkles in basil, wood and aluminium tints. Only the ragù ships filled in: seven ingredients in pot order (cipolla, her measure "tanta"; olio; braciole; tracchiulelle; manzo, "un bel pezzo"; vino; salsa di pomodoro) and four steps: "1. Nella pentola grande: cipolla, olio, braciole, tracchiulelle e manzo." "2. Poi il vino." "3. Poi la salsa di pomodoro." "4. Fuoco bassissimo, dall'alba fino a pranzo." The other five are ready-to-fill pages with name and occasion; Pastiera already carries her line "Mettici il grano quanto ne vuole", Minestra maritata the plain caption "Nessuno la fa come lei."

Typography: running text in Georgia, "Iowan Old Style", Palatino, serif at 20 px, line-height 1.55, at most 34em wide, because several readers wear glasses; dish names at clamp(32px, 8vw, 56px), weight 400; labels in 15 px small caps, letter-spacing 0.08em; weighed amounts at 16 px with tabular numerals. Her words use a handwriting stack ("Snell Roundhand", "Segoe Script", "Bradley Hand", cursive) at 28 px in ragù red, and that face is used for nothing else, so the reader always knows when she is speaking. Voice: steps are short, plain, impersonal Italian and never imitate her; her Neapolitan stays letter for letter ("pippiare" stays "pippiare"), with spellcheck, autocorrect and autocapitalise disabled on every field that holds her words. Exact copy: cover "Quanto basta", subtitle "Le ricette di nonna Titina", button "Apri il quaderno"; her page: "Si chiama Concetta, ma per tutti è Titina. Ha 91 anni ed è di Torre del Greco. Cucina da sempre senza bilancia." and "Le parole grandi sono le sue. I numeri piccoli li abbiamo pesati noi."; the ragù saying "Nun adda vullere, adda pippiare"; at the foot of every dish "Mangia, ca se fredda!"; the last page is the single line "Ne vuo' n'ato poco?", which leads back to the list. Her page has two more slots, hidden while empty: who taught her to cook, and a few lines from the keeper of the book to the cousins.

Entrance: at 0 s the cover is already a finished drawing: the big dented aluminium pot of dark red ragù on the flowered oilcloth, a wooden spoon beside it, basil on the windowsill. The title fades up over 500 ms (ease-out); from 1 s the lid trembles on its own, lifting 2 px and tilting 1.5 degrees at irregular intervals of 1.2 to 2.4 s, while three thin wisps of steam rise. Hidden detail: touching the basil makes one leaf fall beside the pot. Interaction: tap a dish name to open it; an open dish is one long page with everything visible, nothing folded away, so it scrolls with a knuckle, and the screen is kept awake where the device allows. All targets are at least 56 px. Keyboard: Tab in reading order with a 3 px ink focus ring, Enter or Space activates, Left and Right arrows move between dishes, Escape returns to the list. Phone: one column. Wide screens (900 px and up): the three occasions sit in three columns, and a dish keeps its ingredients in a left column that stays in view beside the steps.

Signature moment: her saying writes itself. When a handwritten line first reaches the middle of the screen: 0-250 ms a small red nib dot lands at its start; the line is then uncovered left to right at 55 ms per character behind the travelling dot (about 1.8 s for the ragù saying); over the next 300 ms a thin wood underline is drawn; then, if a recording exists, the "Senti nonna" knob fades in over 200 ms. The line rests, still, and does not replay on that visit; a tap finishes it at once.

Writing together: with the spoon on, every slot becomes a large field inside the page (her measure, with quick picks "quanto basta", "un bicchiere", "nu pugno", "tanta"; weighed amount; steps; saying; photo; her voice), and "Aggiungi un piatto" appears under each occasion. Phones do not sync: "Manda le aggiunte" turns a helper's changes into a text message signed with the first name typed in the writing strip; the keeper pastes it under "Aggiunte ricevute" in her own copy, where each change is a row with "Tieni" and "Lascia stare". Her copy is the master. Its page "Prima di stampare" lists what each dish still lacks, or says "È tutto a posto. Si può stampare.", and carries the line "Da ricontrollare entro il 10 dicembre.", a field "Per" for a cousin's name, a preview of every page as it will print, "Stampa", and "Fai il libro per i cugini", which downloads one read-only file with photos and recordings inside. Print: A5 portrait; cover, dedication, her page, the list, then each dish starting on a new page and ending with six ruled lines headed "Appunti" and at most one small drawn splash of sauce; controls and empty slots are not printed.

Sound: only her recordings, never started by the page; while one plays the underline darkens as progress, and a second tap stops it. Reduced motion: lid and steam are still, sayings are simply there, the leaf already lies by the pot. Performance: no libraries; cover visible within 1 s; at most 12 moving elements; animation pauses when the tab is hidden; photos reduced to 1200 px on the long side; recordings limited to 1.5 MB ("Questo vocale è troppo lungo: scegline uno più corto."). Persistence: everything is saved on the device under the versioned key "quantobasta-v1" and works without a connection; if saving fails: "Su questo telefono non riesco a salvare: manda subito le aggiunte." An unreadable pasted message gets "Questo messaggio non si legge. Fattelo rimandare." Every message is a quiet line inside the page. Prohibitions: nothing ever covers the page (no dialogs, banners or floating notices); no adverts, tracking, accounts, ratings or comments; no photographic or glossy food imagery; no correction of her dialect. Deliver as a single self-contained HTML file with no external files, fonts, images or network requests. Done when: (1) every handwritten line matches the strings above letter for letter and the ragù saying writes itself once; (2) no number, saying or fact about her appears that was not given here or typed by the family; (3) the A5 print starts each dish on a new page with nothing cut off and no blank gap where a slot or photo is empty; (4) once weights are typed for all seven ragù ingredients they show beside her measures, survive a reload without a connection, and the still-weighing line is gone; (5) a helper's message pasted into the master copy becomes signed rows that can be kept or left.

DESCRIPTION
A cream page edged with tiny oilcloth flowers opens on a pen drawing of a big dented aluminium pot, its lid trembling now and then over dark red ragù while three threads of steam rise; a wooden spoon rests beside it and basil stands on the windowsill. Under the title "Quanto basta" a button opens the notebook. A short page introduces Concetta, Titina to everyone, 91, from Torre del Greco, next to an old-print frame waiting for her picture. The list gathers six dishes under Sunday, Christmas and Easter. On the ragù page her saying writes itself in red handwriting, "Nun adda vullere, adda pippiare", and seven ingredients follow in pot order: her measures large and red, the weighed amounts small and dark once the family has typed them. Four plain steps lead to "Mangia, ca se fredda!" at the foot. The other five dishes wait, honest about what is still being weighed. With the spoon switched on, mother and aunts write in their amounts and send them as a message; the master copy checks what is missing and prints twelve A5 books, each dish on its own page with ruled lines for notes and one small splash of sauce.

VISUAL TECHNIQUES
- Inline SVG pen drawings with wobbly 1.5 px ink outlines from slight path jitter and flat fills: cover pot, spoon, basil, six dish drawings, and a plain plate for dishes added later
- Oilcloth border as a repeating SVG pattern of tiny flowers (wood petals at 25%, basil leaves) along the page edges; sugar sprinkles scattered over the Christmas group only
- Lid tremble from transform keyframes (2 px lift, 1.5 degree tilt) fired at random intervals of 1.2-2.4 s; three steam wisps as stroke-dash paths fading upward
- Handwriting reveal: a clip-path wipe per line at 55 ms per character with a soft 12 px edge and a travelling nib dot, triggered by IntersectionObserver at the middle of the screen, once per visit
- Two-voice ingredient row on a CSS grid: her measure at 28 px in the handwriting stack, the weight slot at 16 px with tabular numerals; empty slots removed from the flow, not blanked
- Old-print photo frame: 10 px print white border, 2 degree tilt, aluminium hairline; added photos reduced through an offscreen canvas to 1200 px on the long side
- Data model: dish {id, name, occasion, saying, ingredients [{name, herWords, weight}], steps, photo, voice}, stored in IndexedDB under "quantobasta-v1"; first run seeds the six dishes exactly as specified
- Additions message: a plain text block with header line "QB1", the helper's first name and one line per change, sent through the share sheet or copied; validated on paste and shown as keep-or-leave rows
- Read-only export: the document serialises itself with texts, photos and recordings as embedded data and a read-only flag, downloaded as "quanto-basta.html" with the spoon and all fields removed
- Print stylesheet: A5 portrait, mirrored margins (inner 20 mm, outer 12 mm), text 11.5 pt, her words 15 pt, a page break before each dish, no breaks inside an ingredient row or a step, six ruled "Appunti" lines, one splash per dish from three drawn shapes in ragù red at 25%
- Print preview built from the same print rules, shown as scaled A5 sheets inside the page flow
- Screen wake lock held while a dish is open, released on leaving, silently skipped where unsupported
- One inline status line (aria-live polite) for every message; the document has no overlay layer at all
- Reduced-motion variant: still lid and steam, sayings shown complete, fallen leaf drawn in place

INTERACTION MODEL
Tapping or clicking "Apri il quaderno" leaves the cover for the page about her and then the list; tapping a dish name opens its single long page, and the pot lid "Tutti i piatti" returns to the list in one tap. Touching the basil on the cover drops one leaf beside the pot. A handwritten saying writes itself when it first reaches the middle of the screen; tapping it completes it at once. The "Senti nonna" knob, present only where a recording was added, plays her voice and stops on a second tap, with the underline darkening as progress; nothing ever plays by itself. The wooden spoon "Scrivi" turns every slot into a large field and shows "Aggiungi un piatto" under each occasion; tapping a photo frame while writing lets the person choose a picture from the device. "Manda le aggiunte" opens the share sheet, or copies the message, or shows it in a selectable box if neither is available. On "Prima di stampare", pasting a message under "Aggiunte ricevute" lists signed changes with "Tieni" and "Lascia stare"; "Stampa" prints the A5 book with the name typed in "Per" (or a ruled line if left empty); "Fai il libro per i cugini" downloads the read-only copy. Keyboard: Tab follows reading order with a 3 px ink focus ring, Enter or Space activates the focused control, Left and Right arrows move to the previous and next dish when no field is being edited, Escape leaves writing or returns to the list; there is no keyboard trap. All targets are at least 56 px. Phones show one column; from 900 px the list uses three columns and a dish keeps ingredients in view beside the steps. With reduced motion the lid and steam are still, sayings appear complete and the leaf is already fallen.

What's inside this prompt

The sections of this prompt, in order, with their length.

1. Overview 123 words
2. Mood 133 words
3. Materials and structure 251 words
4. Typography 232 words
5. Entrance 189 words
6. Signature moment 94 words
7. Writing together 199 words
8. Sound 292 words
9. Description 200 words
10. Visual techniques 400 words
11. Interaction model 302 words

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