In order to use PouchDB, I need to start a simple HTTP server.
I'm not sure how you're using PouchDB (on Node? in the browser? PouchDB Server?), but you don't need an HTTP server to run it. You can actually swap in and out any backend you want: CouchDB, LevelDB, IndexedDB, or WebSQL.
There's also an in-memory backend you can use in Node, and we're working on making it a browser plugin too, so that should be ideal for testing.
E.g. here's your HTTP-backed Pouch:
var db = new PouchDB('http://localhost:5984/mydb');
And here's your local Pouch:
var db = new PouchDB('myLocalDb');
And here's your in-memory Pouch (only works in Node right now):
var db = new PouchDB('myInMemoryDb', {db: require('memdown')});
Does that help?