To make this work, I have to backup my configuration file, and replace it with one that is blank and includes this line right?
Would it be possible to generate a full configuration?
With that, we could start nginx with

 sudo ./nginx -c ~/code/google/ngx_pagespeed/test/pagespeed_test.conf

Which seems a little more lightweight, and allows for easier scripting during development (e.g. compile, install, kill nginx, start nginx with test configuration, run tests?)