Chopped tomatoes work fine, but passata or a finer blend of tomatoes is nice
I make meatballs to go with: richmonds thick pork sausages, remove skins and split each into quarters, roll each piece into a ball, fry n oil (flatten slightly for better cooking)
Variants
Optionally, add a handful of onion in and fry till soft before adding the garlic in step 1
Adding a big tsp (or more?) of gochujang is good
Recs from the original post's notes: use basil instead of spinach; add a cup?? of breadcrumbs before the end