Venetian soup for a Venetian virus

My husband and my computer came down with a virus. I would love to say I was an attentive wife, spoon-feeding my husband cough syrup and soup but I paid far more attention to the computer. I have been MIA this week - no commenting, no writing and not a lot of smiling as I obsessed on playing Florence Nightingale to Harold - my geriatric computer.
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Harold may be outdated, but a lot of lovely plays were written on that computer and we have history. I can't save Harold but I know a lot about registry files.

I was going to tie in Marlena De Blasi's lovely A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance with my Venetian-inspired soup. You were going to be treated to sumptuous photos of Venice and that's when Harold started sputtering. I clicked on a "creative commons license" for a photo and sent a nasty Trojan into Harold's sytem.
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Four days later, I am about to "wipe him out." Yes, he will be in factory condition minus all the photos, music and words that have made him sing. I will be taking away his bells and whistles. I have been putting off doing this all day. In his advanced age of 7, Harold may have to retire.
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I did look up once in a while to spy my pathetic husband - chilled and rolled in a blanket. Not the usual for my strapping, flannel-wearing, North-country, Midwestern man. And made variations of soup. For my husband. Harold doesn't like liquids.
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This is a simple soup - loaded with fish and light and brothy. It's a caress. Perfect for humans with viruses. It has enough taste to satisfy and is light enough to soothe. Use any combination of dry white wine, clam juice, water or vegetable broth for the broth. I used white wine and clam juice.
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Venetian Soup Ingredients- 4 servings

• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
• pinch or more of red pepper flakes
• 3 carrots, sliced thinly
• 2 cups white wine
• 8-16 ounces clam juice
• *If you need or like more broth, add 1 cup water, broth or more clam juice or wine
• 3/4 pound mild whitefish (I used tilapia)
• 3/4 pound small scallops
• 3/4 pound peeled, deveined shrimp
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• pinch of white pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley to garnish

Venetian Soup Preparation
In stockpot or Dutch oven, heat your olive oil. When hot, add your shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes and carrots. Saute 30-60 seconds just till softened a bit. Add your broth, wine, clam juice, etc. and boil 6-8 minutes to burn off some of the alcohol and soften the aromatics. Add your whitefish and scallops in chunks. About 2 minutes later add your shrimp. Sprinkle your white pepper and Italian seasoning and simmer untill the fish are cooked through. (The fish cooked in 5-7 minutes.) Sprinkle with parlsey and serve.
If this were truly Venetian, I'd have those wonderful tiny, tiny clams as an add-in. Alas and alack, Minnesota lakes do not provide.
Other ideas: Serve over pasta. make some rice on the side and add that in to the soup. Cook a diced potato with the carrots.
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Then read A Thousand Days in Venice - an unexpected, gutsy, honest journey back into love. The twist - the couple are middle-aged and there are bumps (he speaks little English and she speaks only "food Italian") and they will be living in his tiny apartment in Venice. Where De Blasi - a gifted cook - is dismayed to find that the local shops are happy to provide fresh bread and pastas and she is not expected to make all fresh. So says her husband. And in the course of the book, they slowly come to new agreements and carve out a life that is an unexpected as their romance.
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I intend to get back on the writing/commenting bandwagon soon - I have a hard time typing on the laptop (keys stick and I make a lot of errors) but Maude (laptop) is all I have right now and we will have to come to some agreements. We travel well together but I'm not sure how she feels about taking Harold's place. She has been getting dimmer and dimmer.

Eat. Live. Be, for a Better 2011
The theme this week are "what challenges are you finding?" So I had to laugh. the virus has been a challenge. The winter - for all has been a challenge, hasn't it? And regular exercise is a challenge. But at this point I have lost 1-2 pounds a week for ten weeks that keeps me going. That and my new-obsession - invest in a new pc or a Mac? Is Mac truly better at warding off viruses? Is it worth the investment? Is pc the better value? Any thoughts? When I told my "slowly-healing husband" the cost of a Mac - I think it released a new virus into his system.
And now I shall go upstairs and restore poor Harold to his original, old boring state. With a glass of wine.