Caramelized Onion Pasta

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a meat-free meal as it was a Friday during Lent. I recalled a recipe I had read about by Martha Stewart -- Caramelized Garlic and Shallot Pasta. It was rainy and I didn't have the arse-load of shallots the recipe called for, so I used onions instead -- a combo of white and red onions.

As you can see from the photos, I used a ton of onions and a lot of garlic. Also, I got the onions beautifully caramelized. However, I HATED this dish. It was terrible. Now, when my mother saw what I had made, she was confused because I don't ordinarily like onions. But these were beautifully caramelized onions and they'd be perfect on a steak. But on pasta -- no way. This is one of the few dishes I've made that I really, really didn't like at all. It just didn't have much flavor, and what flavor it did have was disgusting.

Do you think shallots would have made all the difference?