san marzano tomatoes are rarely, if ever, sold crushed. And a lot of times when you buy crushed tomatoes, there’s added puree which basically screws up any recipe. Also, you can control the level of crushing, in case you want it a bit chunkier.  

The version I grew up with was meatless as well. Only in the past couple of years did I decide to meat it up. I’m intrigued about different beans. I should try that next time. Have you used red beans or pintos before?