Who knew?

2 Tbsp olive oil or butter
3 big, fat cloves of garlic or 3 Tbsp minced garlic from a jar
2 26-oz jars of tomato pasta sauce, the herbier the better (I like Classico Italian Sausage with Peppers & Onion for this)
1 8-oz can of chopped clams with the juice
1 lb. fresh or recently frozen white fish (cod, halibut, orange roughy…whatever), cubed
1 lb. fresh or recently frozen uncooked deveined & shelled shrimp
1/2 lb. fresh or recently frozen scallops
1/2 to 1 cup dry white wine (not sweet! Try Gerwurtz)
1 large bay leaf, 2 if you’re feeling frisky
1 or 2 chunky-cut Italian sausages (if you want. I want)
A clean soup pot with a lid (also clean)

Saute the minced garlic for a minute in the olive oil, add the liquid stuff and the bay leaf, bring to a boil (stir frequently) for about 2 minutes, reduce to a simmer and add the sausage & seafood. Cover the pot and walk away for about 5 minutes, come back and stir the stuff, then walk away for another 5 minutes. When you get back it’s done. Serve with sourdough or garlic bread. Or sourdough garlic bread. And lemons if you plan on kissing anyone.

Takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Those huge bottles of Prego you can get at Smart & Final work for this, too, but the soup is sweeter, which I don’t like. I found a workaround, though…add 1/2 to 1 cup of balsamic vinegar. This also works if you don’t want liquor in your soup, use the balsamic vinegar.