Thanks Amanda! The weather is so hot that I may live on this all summer. Will try your suggestion and let you know how it turns out. It's a great recipe replete with olives and celery. And thanks wssmom for your gandmother's recipe. I'll give that a try too!

Frontalgirl (or anyone else!) here's my Grandma's Tomato Aspic recipe (talk about retro, from like 1950!): 1 18-24 ounce can San Marzano tomatoes or tomato puree; 1/3 cup sugar, grated rind and juice of one lemon; 1 package lemon gelatin. Heat tomato, sugar, lemon rind and juice until boiling, add gelatin and pour into a ring mold; chill until set. Haven't made it in ages but I did love it!

Frontalgirl, 1 tablespoons powdered gelatin (or 1 envelope) will thicken 2 cups of liquid. So if you thought 2 envelopes was too much and you want to halve the recipe, then I'd use 1 envelope gelatin and just 2 cups V8. If you make it, let me know how it turns out!

My Grandma used to make tomato aspic; I haven't thought of it in such a long time, thanks for asking this question! She'd prepare it with a can of well-crushed crushed San Marzano tomatoes and one package of lemon jello along with some fresh lemon juice (I'll try and find the exact recipe tonight). For your recipe, you could always make the aspics in little individual dishes instead of a ring mold and cut the amount of V8 to two cups and the gelatin to one packet ...

Amanda, sorry to take so long to answer! The recipe is from James Villas and calls for 4 cups v8 and 3 envelopes gelatin. my notes indicate that it was too much gelatin. what do you suggest to halve that?

I'm intrigued at this product. A SuperBag.
http://www.chow.com/food-news/53973/strained-and-drained/

It's a bag made out of micron sized filter. Which supposedly will take tomatoes and clarify the juices with little fuss and bother. Making a filtered juice to used as a base for aspic by just bagging and squeezing.

They also use large ones to makes stocks as all the small particles are filtered out in the bag..so you can just squeeze it and it's filtered and ready to use as a clear stock after boiling in the bag.

I'm with you -- totally love tomato aspic. How much does your recipe make, and have you tried halving it? The liquid and gelatin should halve easily, I think.